100K North Koreans toil in gulags—Pence

TOKYO— US Vice President Mike Pence ratcheted up the rhetoric against North Korea’s human rights abuses ahead of the Winter Olympic Games in South Korea, saying 100,000 North Koreans labor in modern-day gulags and those who dared protest were imprisoned, tortured and even murdered.

Pence spoke on Thursday to US service members at Yokota Air Base in Japan after touring joint US and Japanese operations centers that monitor and react to crises on the Korean Peninsula and the region at large.

Pence said children and grandchildren of North Koreans were routinely punished for their families’ sins against the dictatorship of Kim Jong-un.

Vigilance

As he warned the world against falling for North Korea’s diplomatic overtures around the Winter Olympics, Pence said American service members should “be vigilant.”

The United States, he said, was “ready for every eventuality.”

Pence said past overtures to North Korea had only resulted in “willful deception, broken promises, and endless and escalating provocation.”

He said the United States was preparing to announce the “toughest and most aggressive” economic sanctions against North Korea in the coming days, boosting pressure on Kim during the Winter Olympics.

Aggressive sanctions

“The United States of America will soon unveil the toughest and most aggressive round of economic sanctions on North Korea ever,” said Pence.

“We will continue to isolate North Korea until it abandons its nuclear and ballistic missile programs once and for all,” he said.

Pence reassured Japan of US support against the North Korean nuclear threat.