The Obama administration imposed new sanctions [press release] on North Korea on Wednesday, taking the unusual step of placing the country’s leader Kim Jong Un and 10 other officials on a blacklist for human rights abusers. The sanctions would bar US individuals and businesses from dealing with Kim and the other officials named and would freeze any assets that they might have in the US. The Department of Treasury [official website] announcement was accompanied by a congressionally mandated report [text] from the State Department [official website] on atrocities in North Korea. The report lists various forms of atrocities including sexual violence, deliberate starvation, severe beatings, forced abortions and secret executions. State Department spokesperson John Kirby stated [press statement] that “Human rights abuses in [North Korea] are among the worst in the world. … The government continues to commit extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and detention, forced labor, and torture.” Kirby estimated that up to 120,000 people, including children, are held in North Korea’s political prison camps. Warning that Kim is capable of resisting any pressure from these latest sanctions, Kirby expressed hope that “This puts them out in the domain in a way they wouldn’t necessarily have been. … There is a power in naming them.”

This is the second time [JURIST report] in less than four months that North Korea has been sanctioned by the US. These wave of sanctions from the US and UN, however, have appeared to have little effect. The Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB) [official website], a South Korean think-tank reported in April [JURIST report] that despite minor progress in certain areas, UN efforts at improving human rights in North Korea have not led to real improvement. North Korea has been an international source of concern due to the country’s human rights record and instability. In March UN human rights investigator Marzuki Darusman [official profile] urged [press release] the UNHRC to push for the prosecution of top North Korean government officials for crimes against humanity [JURIST report]. In February Darusman asked the UN to provide North Korea with notice [JURIST report] that Kim Jong Un may be investigated for crimes against humanity. The US House of Representatives [official website] in January approved [press release] legislation that would increase sanctions against North Korea for its continuation of nuclear testing [JURIST report]. Japan and the EU circulated [JURIST report] a draft UN resolution in November condemning North Korea’s human rights abuses and encouraging the UN Security Council to refer the country to the International Criminal Court [official website], noting reports of torture, limits on freedom of mobility, restrictions on freedom of speech, restrictions on freedom of religion, privacy infringement, arbitrary imprisonment, prison camps and more.