Our top story this morning...<br />The U.S. government is slamming more North Korean officials with sanctions.<br />The punitive measures are in response to their alleged human right abuses and censorship efforts. <br />Lee Seung-jae reports. <br />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".<br />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 .<br />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. <br />Mnuchin added the latest sanctions "demonstrate the United States' ongoing support for freedom of expression, and opposition to endemic censorship and human rights abuses."<br />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.<br />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".<br />The American student died in mid-2017 after 17 months of detention in North Korea.<br />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. <br />It now begs the question: how will the sanctions impact the nuclear diplomacy between the two sides?<br />Lee Seung-jae, Arirang News. <br />
