7 N’Koreans, 3 entities sanctioned by US for “flagrant” human rights abuses

The United States of America has sanctioned seven North Korean nationals and three other entities for ‘flagrant’ rights abuses.

Among those sanctioned were the director and the deputy director of the Military Security Command, the first vice minister of the Ministry of People’s Security and the labour minister. North Korea’s consul general in Shenyang, China, and a diplomat at its embassy in Vietnam were also sanctioned.

According to U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement, the abuses include killings, torture, forced labour and the hunting down of asylum seekers abroad.

“Today’s sanctions target the North Korean military and regime officials,” Mnuchin said in a statement. “We also are targeting North Korean financial facilitators who attempt to keep the regime afloat with foreign currency earned through forced labour operations.”

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“We are especially concerned with the North Korean military, which operates as secret police, punishing all forms of dissent,” the statement added.

”Further, the military operates outside of North Korea to hunt down asylum seekers, and brutally detains and forcibly returns North Korean citizens.”

North Korea has been slapped with a range of sanctions in recent times with China ordering businesses owned by the pariah nation led by Kim Jong-Un to close by January.

China’s commerce ministry noted that companies, including joint ventures with Chinese firms, have 120 days to close from the date the UN resolution was adopted on September 11.

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