Despite the festive Olympic mood, North Korea is feeling the heat from Brussels.
The European Union says eleven non-EU members have decided to adopt and implement the bloc's additional measure of including more North Koreans on their sanctions list.
Park Jong-hong reports.
Pressure on North Korea to join the dialogue for denuclearization has been raised even further.
Countries like Norway, Ukraine, Serbia and Iceland have joined efforts to include on their blacklist 17 North Korean nationals accused of illicit activities including weapons trading.
At the EU headquarters in Brussels on Thursday, the EU's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini welcomed the additional implementation by the non-EU member nations.
The show of solidarity comes after the EU, on January 22nd, took independent action and imposed asset freezes and travel bans on 17 North Koreans for helping Pyongyang avoid UN sanctions in response to the regime's nuclear and missile tests.
Many of those sanctioned were identified as North Korean diplomats in Africa and Asia using front companies to provide coal, arms, and other critical supplies to the regime.
At present, 137 North Koreans and 64 entities are subject to the EU sanctions.
The European Union has been faithfully implementing the broader UN-initiated sanctions and actively encouraging other countries to follow suit.
It hopes the pressure will force the North to come to the dialogue table.
Park Jong-hong, Arirang News.