The United States has put North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on its sanctions list for human rights abuses, the first time he has ever been placed on the list.
The sanctions extend to 23 North Korean individuals and entities for their role in serious human rights violations, the Treasury Department said in a statement Wednesday.
In addition to those in North Korean leadership, some mid-ranking bureaucrats and employees of state institutions and organizations are also on the list.
“Under Kim Jong-un, North Korea 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 Szubin said in the statement.
These new actions, Szubin said, show the U.S. government’s “condemnation of this regime’s abuses and our determination to see them stop.”
The sanctions freeze the assets of the individuals and entities and prevent them from financial transactions with U.S. citizens.
