Washington, D.C. – House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) released the following statement regarding the administration’s new sanctions targeting dictator Kim Jong Un and others responsible for horrific human rights abuses in North Korea:

“Today’s action is long overdue. Torture, rape and executions have been routine in Kim Jong Un’s prison camps for years. Today, at least 120,000 North Korean political prisoners are suffering in these barbaric conditions.

“The world cannot accept Kim Jong Un’s gross human rights abuses or his threats of nuclear holocaust. These sanctions are an important step that can help force change – and they must be aggressively enforced.”

NOTE: Today’s sanctions, announced along with the release of the State Department’s “Report on Serious Human Rights Abuses and Censorship in North Korea,” were mandated by Chairman Royce’s North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act of 2016. Learn more about the legislation HERE.