A 62-year-old Korean trader was arrested Wednesday for exporting ceramic tiles to North Korea in 2009 and 2010 despite a ban on such trading, police said.
Seong Guang Sun, a permanent Korean resident of Japan who heads KJ Co. in Nagoya, is suspected of exporting ceramic tiles worth ¥4.9 million and some 56,000 chinaware items worth ¥1.2 million from Nagoya port in December 2009 and May 2010 to North Korea through a broker in Dalian, a port city in northeast China.
Seong has denied the allegation and says the ceramics were destined for China only, the police said.
Japan has banned all exports to North Korea since June 2009 as part of economic sanctions over Pyongyang's nuclear tests and slow progress in resolving the abductions of Japanese nationals.