North Korea has warned it is planning its toughest response to what it deemed a "declaration of war" by the United States after Washington blacklisted the nuclear-armed country's leader Kim Jong Un for the first time over human rights abuses.
Pyongyang on Thursday described the sanctioning of Kim as a "hideous crime," according to North Korea's official KCNA news agency.
"What the US did this time, not content with malignantly slandering the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, is the worst crime that can never be pardoned," it cited the foreign ministry as saying.
The United States imposed its first sanctions targeting any North Koreans for rights abuses on Wednesday, blacklisting Kim along with 10 other people and five government ministries and departments.
The move affects assets within US jurisdiction.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, a former South Korean foreign minister, hopes China will urge its ally North Korea to cooperate internationally on human rights, his spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Thursday in New York.
Dujarric said that Ban, who is currently visiting China, "believes that discussion of human rights concerns allows for a more comprehensive assessment and action when addressing security and stability concerns on the Korean Peninsula."
Senior U.S administration officials said the new US sanctions showed the administration's greater focus on human rights in North Korea, an area long secondary to Washington's efforts to halt Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs.
Inside North Korea adulation for Kim, 32, is mandatory and he is considered infallible. A 2014 report by the United Nations, which referred to Kim by name in connection to human rights, triggered a strong reaction from Pyongyang, including a string of military provocations.
The US Treasury Department identified Kim's date of birth as January 8, 1984, a rare official confirmation of his birthday.
South Korea, which cut all political and commercial ties with its own sanctions against the North in February, welcomed the US move, saying it will encourage greater international pressure on the North to improve its human rights record.
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