Indelible label of ‘human rights criminals’ on N. Korean leader and his men

The United States imposed sanctions on 15 North Korean individuals, including its leader Kim Jong Un, and the same number of North Korean organizations over human rights abuses on Wednesday. The key parts of the sanctions include a U.S. entry ban, a freeze on their bank accounts and the suspension of financial transactions with them. It was the first time the U.S., which once sanctioned the supreme leaders of Libya and Syria, has imposed direct sanctions on the North's leader. The latest move also marked the first-ever U.S. sanctions on a particular country over its human rights abuses. While the U.S. is already implementing tough sanctions on Pyongyang over its nuclear tests, the additional sanctions for human rights violations show Washington’s firm commitment to never condoning Kim Jong Un’s disrespect of international norms.

"Under Kim Jong-un, North Korea continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and torture," said Adam J. Szubin, acting under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence. Human rights abuses by three generations of the North’s leaders – Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il and Kim Jong Un – have been so serious that the United Nations General Assembly recommended taking them to the International Criminal Court for two consecutive years. In addition to Kim Jong Un, working-level officials, including concentration camp wardens and arresters of North Korean escapees, who are trampling on North Korean people’s human rights are also subject to punishment. Washington’s addition of the North’s middle-level officials to the sanctions list is a strong warning that they will be punished for their human rights abuses under international law once the Pyongyang regimes collapse.

More than anything else, the U.S. should closely scrutinize and persistently watch those to be sanctioned so that the pressures on the North will be effective. The U.S. damaged the credibility of the selection process by including into its sanctions list the National Defense Commission, which was abolished at the June 29 Supreme People’s Assembly session, while omitting Kim Won Hong, director of the State Security Department and a central figure in Pyongyang’s human rights abuses. The U.S. should complement and update the sanctions list and seek epochal measures that would deal a substantial blow to the North so that Washington can induce changes from within the North.

Pyongyang will fiercely resist the U.S. labeling of Kim Jong Un, whom the North calls the “supreme dignity,” as a human rights criminal. If his men with blind loyalty make retaliatory provocations, the situation on the Korean Peninsula could be affected, let alone the Pyongyang-Washington relationship. China and Russia, which have criticized U.S. human rights offensives against them as “intervention in internal affairs,” are expected to come to the North’s defense this time. Washington should strengthen its communication with Beijing and Moscow in order to avoid recurring precedence of reinforcing the confrontation between the South Korea-U.S.-Japan alliance and the China-Russia-North Korea bloc. It is historical justice to bring to justice Kim Jong Un and his blind loyalists who make a mockery of the international community with nuclear and missile development and human rights abuses.

한기흥기자 eligius@donga.com