WASHINGTON – US authorities on Wednesday announced sanctions against North Korean government agencies and senior officials — among them leader Kim Jong Un’s sister — in response to Pyongyang’s “serious” human rights abuses and censorship activities.
The latest action, which sees another seven individuals added to America’s growing list of sanctioned North Koreans, targets security and prison officials accused of rights abuses.
Those blacklisted include Kim Won Hong, who heads the Ministry of State Security (MSS).
“The MSS engages in torture and inhumane treatment of detainees during interrogation and in the country’s network of political prison camps,” the U. S. Department of the Treasury said in a statement.
“This inhumane treatment includes beatings, forced starvation, sexual assault, forced abortions, and infanticide.
