TOKYO, Dec 1, 2009 (AFP) - Japanese police said Tuesday 1 December they had arrested two people suspected of exporting cosmetics, food and clothes to North Korea in violation of trade bans against the nuclear-armed regime.

Noriko Nakanishi, 62, an export executive, and her colleague Masaki Ikeyama, 73, are accused of shipping cosmetics to North Korea via China last year, and exporting clothes and food in August this year.

North Korea ramped up regional tensions by firing a long-range rocket over Japanese territory in April, conducting its second nuclear test in May, and testing short-range missiles on several occasions since.

Tokyo, in a bid to target the reclusive regime's leaders, has since 2006 enforced UN rules banning the export of luxury products to North Korea, including caviar, beef and some high-end consumer electronics.

It declared a total trade ban in June this year.