Anchor: Washington has imposed sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his role in human rights violations in the regime. This is the first time that the U.S. government has listed a top North Korean leader on its sanctions list.
Our Kim Bum-soo reports.

Report: The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday placed 15 North Korean officials and eight entities on its sanctions list.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is among the targets identified as responsible for or associated with serious human rights abuses in the country.

State Department Spokesman John Kirby told reporters that it is unprecedented Washington enforces sanctions on the head of a foreign state for human rights violations.

[Sound bite: U.S. State Department Spokesman John Kirby (English)]
"This report is the first listing of persons determined to be responsible for serious human rights abuses and censorship in the DPRK as required by the act, and we’re going to continue to identify more individuals as we obtain additional information."
"This report represents the most comprehensive U.S. Government effort to date to actually name specific officials responsible for or associated with the worst aspects of this regime’s brutal repression of its own people."

The move is based on the State Department's report on human rights abuses in North Korea submitted to the U.S. Congress earlier in the day.

The State Department said that human rights abuses in North Korea are among the worst in the world, noting that the regime continues to commit extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, forced labor, and torture. 

Many of these abuses are committed in political prison camps where an estimated 80 to 120-thousand individuals are detained, including children and the family members of accused.

Other senior North Korean officials on the sanctions list include Ri Yong-mu, former vice chairman of the National Defense Commission(NDC); O Kuk-ryol, former vice chairman of the NDC; Hwang Pyong-so, vice chairman of the State Affairs Commission; and Pak Yong-sik, minister of People's Armed Forces.

The sanctions entities include the NDC as well as the Organization and Guidance Department, the Ministry of State Security and the ministry’s Prisons Bureau, the Ministry of People’s Security and the ministry’s Correctional Bureau, the Propaganda and Agitation Department, and the Reconnaissance General Bureau.

Ri, O, Hwang and Pak had been under the U.S. sanctions for some time on charges of aiding the North’s development of weapons of mass destruction programs or other illicit activities. Three entities—NDC, Propaganda and Agitation Department, and Reconnaissance General Bureau—had also been included in the U.S. sanctions previously.

The Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List is consistent with the requirements of the North Korean Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016.

The individuals on the new U.S. sanctions list will be banned from entering the U.S. and face asset freezes in America. They will also be prevented from doing any transactions with Americans.

Although the measure will unlikely have substantial impacts on the North given the long-suspended relations between Pyongyang and Washington, it is expected to put significant psychological pressure on the regime.

Experts say the new sanctions will further alienate the U.S.-North relations, and also have ramifications on inter-Korean relations.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.