U.S. Imposes First Sanctions on North Korea’s Kim Jong Un for Human Rights Abuses

The Obama administration imposed sanctions for the first time Wednesday on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for his alleged role in perpetuating widespread human rights abuses.

The U.S. also blacklisted 10 other regime officials for allegedly helping Kim run prison camps, torture citizens, hunt down defectors, and maintain a nationwide system of propaganda and censorship.

The new Treasury Department sanctions freeze any of the individuals’ assets in the U.S. and prevent Americans from doing business with the blacklisted officials.

“Human rights abuses in the [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] are among the worst in the world,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement announcing the sanctions Wednesday.

“The government continues to commit extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced labor, and torture. Many of these abuses are committed in the political prison camps, where an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 individuals are detained, including children and family members of the accused,” he added. (Read more from “U.S. Imposes First Sanctions on North Korea’s Kim Jong Un for Human Rights Abuses” HERE)

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