It was not clear whether the decision to sanction the three men was related to U. S.-North Korean nuclear diplomacy
The United States on Monday sanctioned three North Korean officials, including a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, citing « ongoing and serious human rights abuses and censorship, » the U. S. Treasury Department said.
The sanctions « shine a spotlight on North Korea’s reprehensible treatment of those in North Korea, and serve as a reminder of North Korea’s brutal treatment of U. S. citizen Otto Warmbier, » the department said in a statement.
Warmbier was an American student who died in June 2017 after 17 months of detention in North Korea, which contributed to already tense exchanges between Pyongyang and Washington, primarily over North Korea’s nuclear development program.
