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(LEAD) U.S. sanctions 7 N.K. individuals, 3 entities over human rights abuses

All News 01:45 October 27, 2017

(ATTN: UPDATES with details from 4th para)

WASHINGTON, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on seven North Korean individuals and three entities over the regime's human rights abuses.

The Department of the Treasury said it is targeting officials of the North Korean government and the ruling Workers' Party of Korea.

"North Korea is run by a brutal regime that continues to engage in serious human rights abuses," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. "We are especially concerned with the North Korean military, which operates as secret police, punishing all forms of dissent."

The action was taken in line with a State Department report, also released the same day, in accordance with the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016, signed into law in February last year.

The report identifies the seven North Korean officials and three entities as "responsible for serious human rights abuses or censorship in North Korea," and the sanctions freeze their property and interests within U.S. jurisdiction.

They include the Military Security Command (MSC), which monitors military personnel for anti-regime activity and investigates political crimes in the military, according to the State Department.

"In practice, its jurisdiction extends beyond the military to ordinary citizens of the DPRK, as well," it said. DPRK is the acronym of North Korea's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Among the targeted individuals are Jo Kyong-chol, commander of the MSC; Sin Yong-il, deputy director of the MSC; North Korea's labor minister, the North Korean consul general in Shenyang, China; and a diplomat in Vietnam.

"Human rights abuses by the DPRK regime remain among the worst in the world, including those involving extrajudicial killings, forced labor, torture, prolonged arbitrary detention, as well as rape, forced abortions, and other sexual violence inside the country," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

"Many of the country's human rights abuses underwrite the regime's weapons program, including forced labor in the form of mass mobilizations, reeducation through labor camps, and overseas labor contracts," she said, noting that thousands of North Koreans are sent abroad to earn revenue for the regime.

The sanctions are the latest in a series of actions the U.S. has taken to step up pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

They come ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump's first official visit to Asia next week.

hague@yna.co.kr
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