US sanctions on seven N. Koreans for ‘flagrant’ rights abuse

WASHINGTON: The US on Thursday imposed sanctions on seven North Korean individuals and three entities for ‘flagrant’ human rights abuses, including killings, torture, forced labour and the hunting down of asylum seekers abroad.

“Today’s sanctions target the North Korean military and regime officials,” US Treasury Secretary Steven 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 labor operations.”

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.

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

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

The Treasury statement charged that Ku Sung Sop, the consul general in Shenyang, and Kim Min Chol, the diplomat in Vietnam, had participated in the forced repatriation of North Korean asylum seekers.

Scott Busby, the US deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour, told a news briefing that Ku’s case had been raised with China.

He said it was up to China how to react, but the range of possibilities included expelling him from the country.

Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China does not approve of countries using their own domestic law to enact unilateral sanctions outside of the United Nations framework.

“We will maintain normal exchanges and cooperation with North Korea on the basis of complying with UN resolutions,” he told a daily news briefing, without elaborating.

Busby said North Korean government violations included extrajudicial killings, torture, rape and forced abortions and the aim of the sanctions was to send a message, especially to prison camp managers and mid-level officials, that individuals would be held accountable.

The US administration has sought to restrict the income North Korea receives from its export of labour as part of efforts to choke off funds helping to finance the country’s nuclear and missile programmes, which Pyongyang says are aimed at developing weapons capable of hitting the US. — Reuters