The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has expanded sanctions against North Korea to target officials – including Kim Jong Un – and entities associated to the North’s human rights violations, a Treasury Department press release announced Wednesday.

The purpose of these sanctions, which allege human rights violations linked to the very top of North Korea's leadership, were described as Washington's “efforts to expose those responsible for serious human rights abuses and censorship in North Korea.”