Our top story this morning...
The U.S. government is slamming more North Korean officials with sanctions.
The punitive measures are in response to their alleged human right abuses and censorship efforts.
Lee Seung-jae reports.
The U.S. Treasury Department has sanctioned three North Korean officials, including a top aide to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un,... citing "ongoing and serious human right abuses and censorship".
The U.S. Treasury identified them as Choe Ryong-hae , an aide long regarded as the right-hand man to Kim Jong-un, who also heads the Workers' Party of Korean Organization and Guidance Department,... State Security Minister Jong Kyong-thaek and the director of North Korea's Propaganda and Agitation Department Pak Kwang-ho .
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the North Korean officials "direct departments that perpetrate the regime's brutal state-sponsored censorship activities, human right violations and abuses" to suppress and control the population.
Mnuchin added the latest sanctions "demonstrate the United States' ongoing support for freedom of expression, and opposition to endemic censorship and human rights abuses."
Observers say, while it's still unclear,... the decision to sanction the officials may be related to the recent stall in the Pyeongyang-Washington nuclear talks,... which have made little progress since Kim Jong-un and President Trump met in Singapore in June.
The Treasury Department said the sanctions "shine a spotlight" on the North's treatment of people inside the regime,... as it will "serve as a reminder of North Korea's brutal treatment of U.S. citizen Otto Warmbier".
The American student died in mid-2017 after 17 months of detention in North Korea.
The sanctions freeze any assets the officials may have under U.S. jurisdiction,... and generally prohibits them from engaging in any transactions with anyone in the United States.
It now begs the question: how will the sanctions impact the nuclear diplomacy between the two sides?
Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News.
