North Korea says U.S. sanctions crossed Red Line

That is why we need foreign workers.

N. Korea adds that the sanctions are are a “hideous crime” and that North Korea will take “toughest countermeasures” in response.

Despite widespread doubts that the human rights sanctions will achieve their intended effect, others say the measure sends a necessary signal. The U.S. blacklisted Kim along with 10 other people and five government ministries and departments.

U.S. President Barack Obama delivers remarks on recent police-involved shootings in Louisiana and Minnesota after arriving ahead of a NATO Summit in Warsaw, Poland, July 8, 2016.

North Korea on Thursday threatened to respond to the sanctions with its toughest action, calling the USA move a “declaration of war”.

In addition, Washington has to commit to never “intimidating” North Korea, and must withdraw all troops capable of using nuclear weapons from the South. “The rhetoric is what we have become used to”, Malinowski said, brushing off the North’s statement.

The North Korean government captures the bulk of the foreign exchange earned by its workers overseas, analysts say, but they are allowed to send some back to their families.

The Ministry demanded that “the US should immediately and unconditionally retract the recent step for sanctions which dared hurt the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership”.

“The time for a war talk in the Korean peninsula is long past”.

The diplomat also rejected views that the blacklisting shows the U.S.is not interested in talks with the North, saying that despite many years of sanctions on Iran and its leaders, the USA achieved a diplomatic resolution of Tehran’s nuclear program.

“That’s just fiction; this is real life, and they may react very negatively to the designating of basically their god”, Cha said, predicting “a lot of belligerent activity by North Korea” in the coming months. “I think that’s a misunderstanding of sanctions to suggest that they mean that the door is closed to diplomacy”. Indeed, most global human rights organizations consider North Korea to have no contemporary parallel with respect to violations of liberty.

A source in Washington said the US government is also gathering information on political prison camps through accounts from high-ranking defectors, non-governmental agencies and satellites.

The U.S. government urged Pyongyang to refrain from statements and actions that raise tensions in the region. “That’s an important part of our work”, he said.

“They’re not only symbolic”.

The official said one can make an argument that North Korean workers overseas are treated as “slave labourers” but added that their working conditions overseas might be better than at home.