WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States has imposed sanctions on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and ten more senior officials as well as five entities for their role in human rights abuses, the US Department of the Treasury said in a statement on Wednesday.
"The US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) today designated top officials of the North Korean regime, including North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, ten other officials and five entities for their ties to North Korea’s notorious abuses of human rights," the statement said.
The action was the first time Kim had been included in Treasury sanctions. Officials from the North Korean Ministry of People’s Security and the Ministry of State Security were also included in the sanctions.
The sanctions freeze any property North Korean officials may hold within US jurisdiction and prohibit US persons or entities from engaging in transactions with those officials, the Treasury noted.
All of the individuals named in the sanctions were included in a US Department of State report highlighting human rights abuses in North Korea, according to the Treasury Department.
