North Korea denounces UK for sanctions on organisations accused of links to prison camps

SEOUL: North Korea denounced Britain on Saturday for announcing sanctions against two organisations that the British government has said are involved in forced labour, torture and murder in North Korean prison camps.

The move against the two organisations, named as the Ministry of State Security Bureau 7 and Ministry of People's Security Correctional Bureau, is part of the first sanctions under Britain's new global human rights regime. Sanctions on 25 Russians and 20 Saudis were also announced.

"Britain's latest move is a flagrant political plot to jump on the bandwagon of the United States' inimical policy," a North Korean Foreign Ministry spokesperson said in a statement carried on state media KCNA.

"We strongly condemn and reject the UK's daring to impose sanctions on the institutions responsible for our country's security as violent interference in domestic affairs."

The sanctions will take the form of asset freezing.

North Korea and the United States have failed to find a compromise over North Korea's nuclear weapons programme or international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang.

Recent North Korean statements, including one by Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, have reiterated Pyongyang's objections to what it sees as hostile and self-serving policies of the United States.