UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Thursday expanded the list of bodies and individuals of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) under sanctions for nuclear and missile activities, adding Pyongyang's atomic energy agency and two of its top officials.

Altogether, the council's DPRK sanctions committee clamped five new organizations and five people under asset freezes and travel bans, and banned the import into the state of two weapons-related materials.

Announcement of the list followed a month of committee haggling after the Security Council expanded UN sanctions against the DPRK in a June 12 resolution that responded to a nuclear test Pyongyang carried out on May 25.

The entities sanctioned are the DPRK's General Bureau of Atomic Energy (GBAE) and four trading companies, committee chairman Fazli Corman, Turkey's UN Ambassador, said.

The individuals are Ri Je-son and Hwang Sok-hwa, both described as directors at the GBAE, one other nuclear official and two trading company directors.

The measure, binding on all 192 UN member states, greatly lengthens an existing blacklist, consisting only of two companies and a bank involved in Pyongyang's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Analysts have said the new UN measures will make it more costly for the North to trade arms but they will not likely deter customers.

The sanctions committee includes all 15 Security Council members.

Committee to continue work   

The committee was created after the council adopted punitive measures against the DPRK for its first nuclear test in October 2006 but had been dormant until April of this year when it put the first three names on the sanctions list.

That move followed a long-range rocket launch earlier in the month by Pyongyang. Security Council resolutions ban ballistic missile launches by the DPRK.

Western countries welcomed Thursday's committee action.

US Ambassador Susan Rice said it would "strengthen the sanctions regime against the DPRK and will serve to constrain the DPRK from engaging in transactions or activities that could fund its WMD (weapons of mass destruction) or proliferation activities."

Japanese Ambassador Yukio Takasu called the measures "a major achievement."

Corman said the committee would continue working to identify subsidiaries of the targeted DPRK firms and additional technical items, including sensitive dual-use goods, ballistic missile-related items and nuclear-related items.

The materials that were banned by Thursday's measure were graphite for weapons-making purposes and extra-strong para-aramid fiber such as kevlar.

The companies targeted were the Namchongang Trading Corporation and Hong Kong Electronics -- both also hit by US sanctions announced on June 30 -- as well as the Korea Hyoksin Trading Corporation and Korean Tangun Trading Corporation.

Western officials say Hong Kong Electronics is based on Iran's Kish Island but is controlled by the DPRK. They say all the companies were involved in nuclear weapon or ballistic missile activities.

Apart from Ri and Hwang, the people sanctioned were Namchongang director Yun Ho-jin, Ri Hong-sop, former director of the DPRK's Yongbyon nuclear research center, and Han Yu-ro, director of Korea Ryongaksan General Trading Corporation.

Corman said the sanctions were "carefully targeted at only those entities and individuals responsible for the DPRK's ballistic missiles, nuclear and other WMD-related programs."

"They are intended to minimize any unintended humanitarian consequences on the people of the DPRK," he said.