North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visiting a troubled terrapin farm in May 2015. It demanded that the sanctions be retracted or else “every lever and channel for diplomatic contact between the DPRK and the USA will be cut off at once”.
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( _Korean) “Although it’s an issue between North Korea and the US, as South Korea is directly and indirectly involved, North Korea is expected to increase its criticism towards the South too”.
Another on the new sanctions list, Cho Yon Jun of the powerful Organization and Guidance Department, is in charge of enforcing loyalty to Kim, including executing those who defy his will, the senior USA official said. The agency even calls the usa decision a “despicable crime”.
North Korea has made headlines for its determination to conduct nuclear tests and rocket launches, which have also been reported as failing, but they still pose a threat to USA ally South Korea, which has been targeted recently for blasting propaganda through speakers from across the border. Last month, the Treasury Department declared North Korea a “primary money laundering concern” – the toughest action it can take to discourage banks in any jurisdiction dealing with the country.
It also named 10 other officials in the North Korean regime, and five government ministries and departments.
The Ministry of State Security administers North Korea’s vast network of political prison camps, where detainees are subjected to beatings, starvation, sexual assault, forced abortions and infanticide.
North Korea has labeled newly-introduced USA sanctions against its leader Kim Jong-Un “a declaration of war”, promising to provide Washington with a strong response.
Almost 80,000 to 120,000 people are being treated to third degree torture in Jong Un’s prison camps.
The Obama administration says human rights abuses in North Korea are among the worst in the world.
Some analysts and diplomats have warned that the USA action could limit cooperation with China on further action.
At the same time, Kerry said the United States stood “ready and prepared” to return to talks with North Korea aimed at convincing the country to abandon its nuclear weapons program.
The rollout of the blacklist, which was accompanied by a damning State Department report on North Korean human rights abuses, was mandated by the North Korea Sanctions Act of 2016, passed by the U.S. Congress earlier this year.
The United States placed North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un on its sanctions blacklist for the first time Wednesday, calling him directly responsible for a long list of serious human rights abuses. It was helped along in 2014 by the release of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry report that highlighted the problem, particularly the system of labor camps.
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The U.S. Treasury Department identified Kim’s date of birth as January 8, 1984, a rare official confirmation of his birthday.
