The move was announced by the head of the council's sanctions committee, Turkish diplomat Fazli Corman, after weeks of bargaining by the body's 15 members.

It was mandated under a UN Security Council resolution adopted June 12, which imposed sanctions on the Stalinist state following its May 25 underground nuclear test.

That resolution called for beefed up inspections of air, sea and land shipments going to and from North Korea, and an expanded arms embargo.

The council then directed its sanctions panel to agree on a list of additional individuals and entities to be targeted for sanctions including a travel ban and an assets freeze.

Corman named five senior officials linked to North Korea's banned nuclear, ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs who will be subjected to the sanctions.

The five include Yun Ho-Jin, head of Namchongang Trading Corporation, which oversees the import of items needed for the uranium enrichment program and Han Yu-Ro, head of Korea Ryongaksan General Trading Corporation, and involved in North Korea's ballistic missile program.

Five entities involved in illicit proliferation activities were also named as targets for an assets freeze, including:

-- NAMCHONGANG TRADING CORPORATION, which has been involved in procuring Japanese-origin vacuum pumps identified at a North Korean nuclear facility and in nuclear-related procurement associated with a German individual;

-- HONG KONG ELECTRONICS, which has facilitated the movement of money from Iran to North Korea;

-- GENERAL BUREAU OF ATOMIC ENERGY (GBAE), which is responsible for the county's nuclear program, including the Yongbyon Nuclear Research Center and its plutonium production research reactor, as well as its fuel fabrication and reprocessing facilities.

Also added to the sanctions list were two items identified as "graphite designed or specified for use in Electrical Discharge Machining (EDM) machines" and "Para-aramid fiber (Kevlar and other Kevlar-like) filament and tape."

Corman said the measures, endorsed by all 15 members, "demonstrated the council's unity and resolve" and were carefully targeted at North Korea's nuclear weapons, ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction programs.

They were designed "to minimize any unintended consequences for the people" of North Korea.

Japan's UN Ambassador Yukio Takasu, whose country feels particularly threatened by Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program and ballistic missile activities, immediately welcomed the new measures.

The United States also applauded the panel's decision.

"We are pleased with the new international sanctions agreed upon today in response to North Korea's nuclear tests and recent missile activity," US Ambassador Susan Rice said in a statement.

"These new designations... strengthen the sanctions regime against North Korea and will serve to constrain North Korea from engaging in transactions or activities that could fund its WMD or proliferation activities."

British UN Ambassador John Sawers said: "These further measures place DPRK's trading activity under close scrutiny and includes important measures to clamp down on DPRK's proliferation activities and thereby the means with which it funds and develops its nuclear and WMD program."

Previous UN sanctions targeted North Korean companies, freezing their overseas assets, but did not apply to individuals.

Since a long-range rocket launch in early April, the North has staged its second nuclear test, fired a variety of shorter-range missiles, renounced the truce in force on the Korean peninsula and quit nuclear disarmament talks.

earlier related report
US welcomes international 'consensus' on NKorea sanctions
The United States has welcomed the international "consensus" on the implementation of UN sanctions on North Korea, even if the targeted entities have still not been identified.

"We had intensive discussions with all of the countries in the region and had firm statements and very good cooperation from all countries, making clear, both publicly and privately, that they intended to fully implement (UN Security Council resolution) 1874," a senior administration official said Wednesday.

"We are in the final stages right now of completing the discussions around designating persons and entities" under the resolution, which was adopted nearly two months ago, the official added, speaking on condition of anonymity.

China namely considers a strict application of the UN sanctions as the only solution to bring Pyongyang back to the table and have it abandon its nuclear program, another US official said.

"There's a broad consensus, including by China, frankly, that this is the right way to go," the official said. "I don't think the Chinese would take this step lightly, or if they believe that it wasn't important in terms of securing (the) North Koreans' compliance."

The resolution, designed to punish Pyongyang over its May 25 underground nuclear test and subsequent missile firings, calls for beefed up inspections of air, sea and land shipments going to and from North Korea, and an expanded arms embargo.

It also includes new targeted financial restrictions to choke off an important source of revenue for Pyongyang's nuclear and missile sectors, and the United Nations must now publish a list of North Korean entities, goods and individuals to be subjected to an assets freeze and travel ban.

The first US official said North Korea would not be rewarded only for returning to six-party talks -- involving the two Koreas, the United States, Russia, China and Japan.

"It is clear by all the parties... that there's a consensus that given what's happened up till now, that we're not really interested in halfway measures," the official said.

"What we need to see from North Korea is complete denuclearization and for them to take irreversible steps towards that goal."

Asked about two US journalists detained in Pyongyang, the official said Washington had still not received a response to its calls for the two women to be released.

"We haven't had any specific information from them or specific response from the North Koreans," the official said.

A North Korean court on June 8 sentenced Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, to 12 years of "reform through labor" for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified "grave crime."

The pair were on reporting assignment for San Francisco-based Current TV, a company co-founded by former vice president Al Gore, when they were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 along the frozen Tumen River while researching a story on refugees fleeing the hardline communist state.

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