US sanctions DPRK leader over rights abuses
The United States on July 6 sanctioned the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) leader Kim Jong Un for the first time, citing "notorious abuses of human rights," in a move that diplomats say will incense the nuclear-armed country.
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The sanctions, the first to target any North Koreans for rights abuses, affect property and other assets within US jurisdiction and extend to 10 other individuals and five government ministries and departments, the USTreasury Department said in a statement.
The sanctions place those officials on a blacklist making them radioactive to major financial institutions and companies while freezing any assets they may already have in US banks.
"Under Kim Jong Un, the DPRK continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and torture," Acting Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Adam J. Szubin said in the statement.
In the DPRK, the leader is the subject of state-mandated adulation and considered infallible.
In a report by the US State Department to Congress, Kim Jong Un topped a list of those responsible for serious human rights abuses and censorship in the DPRK. Many of the abuses happen in the DPRK's political prisoner camps, which hold between 80,000 and 120,000 prisoners including children, the report said.
The Treasury statement said he had "engaged in, facilitated, or been responsible for an abuse or violation of human rights by the Government of DPRK or the Workers’ Party of Korea."
The sanctions also named lower-level officials such as Choe Pu Il, the minister of People’s Security, as directly responsible for abuses.
