N. Korea urges U.S. to remove sanctions on leader Kim

North Korea's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency that it regards the sanctions imposed a day before by Washington on Kim as an "open declaration of war" against Pyongyang.

"The U.S. should immediately and unconditionally retract the recent step for sanctions which dared hurt the dignity of the DPRK supreme leadership," the statement said, referring to the official name of the country, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

"Every lever and channel for diplomatic contact between the DPRK and the U.S. will be cut off at once in case the U.S. refuses to accept our demand," it said.

The United States rejected the North's demand that it retract punitive measures on Kim and 10 other officials for their role in human rights abuses in the country such as the running of forced labor camps and the torture and executions of dissidents.

"We stand 100 percent resolutely behind them," State Department spokesman John Kirby said Thursday in Washington.

Referring to North Korea's calling the latest sanctions a "declaration of war," Kirby said, "We once again call on North Korea to refrain from actions and rhetoric that only further raise tensions in the region."

The North's statement accused the United States of crossing a "red line" by hurting the dignity of the supreme leader and said Pyongyang "will take the toughest countermeasures" against Washington if it maintains the sanctions.

However, it stopped short of saying what such countermeasures would be.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on the North Korean leader for the first time, along with 10 other individuals, citing their "notorious abuses of human rights."

Observers said the fresh source of tension between Pyongyang and Washington will make it even more difficult for them to return to the negotiating table over nuclear issues.

The sanctions, which freeze property and other assets within U.S. jurisdiction, also added five government agencies, including the Ministry of State Security and the Ministry of People's Security, to the blacklist.

The new sanctions came with the release by the U.S. State Department of a report on human rights abuses and censorship in North Korea.

The report said many of the abuses such as extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, forced labor and torture are carried out in North Korea's political prison camps, which hold an "estimated 80,000-120,000" people, including children and family members of the accused.

Kim's regime "also maintains an extensive system of forced labor through its rigid controls over workers, and restricts the exercise of freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, association, religion or belief, and movement," it said.

Source: Kyodo