Anchor: As the U.S. Treasury Department announced a target list of sanctions consisting of North Korean officials and organizations, including North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Pyongyang responded with a harsh statement. The North Korean government demanded the U.S. retract the Treasury sanction measure immediately, threatening to cut off any remaining diplomatic contact with the U.S.
Here is Kim Bum-soo with details. 

Report: North Korea says that the U.S. government humiliated its supreme leader by listing his name on its sanctions list for human rights violations.

In a statement Thursday night, the Foreign Ministry in Pyongyang said that Washington "crossed the red line," and all pending issues between the two sides will be dealt with under the law of war.

The North Korean government said that the sanctions list amounts to a declaration of war, and threatened to cut off any remaining diplomatic channels if the measures are not revoked. 

Claiming that Washington’s hostile policy toward the North has now reached the worst phase to hurt the dignity of the regime’s supreme leader, Pyongyang said that it will take the toughest countermeasures to resolutely shatter the hostility of the U.S.

It also claimed that the U.S. State Department’s report on North Korean human rights conditions is fabricated and inadequate to base its decision to impose new sanctions. 

The North said that the new sanctions list came because Washington is embarrassed by the rapid advancement of its nuclear weapons technologies. 

U.S. State Secretary John Kerry on his part warned North Korean officials over the human rights conditions in North Korea. 

During a news conference following his meeting with the Ukrainian president in Kiev on Thursday, Kerry said that it is important that North Korean officials understand at all levels that there are consequences for actions.

Kerry also emphasized Beijing’s role in restraining the North’s behaviors.
Kim Bum-soo, KBS World Radio News.