The U.S. put North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on its sanctions blacklist for the first time Wednesday, ramping up pressure on the regime over human rights abuses.

Kim is among 15 officials and eight entities identified in the blacklist unveiled by the State Department and Treasury. The report was in line with a mandate in the North Korea Sanctions and Policy Enhancement Act -- Washington’s strongest standalone sanctions legislation against Pyongyang -- which was enacted last February.

It is the first time that the young ruler has ever been personally blacklisted, officials here said, though there are a series of international and unilateral bans in connection with its weapons program. 

The U.S. has previously sanctioned other heads of state over crimes against humanity, including Bashar Assad of Syria, Saddam Hussein of Iraq, Moammar Gadhafi of Libya, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and Charles Taylor of Liberia.

“Under Kim Jong-un, North Korea continues to inflict intolerable cruelty and hardship on millions of its own people, including extrajudicial killings, forced labor, and torture,” Adam Szubin, acting undersecretary of state for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.

State Department spokesperson John Kirby said the report represents “the most comprehensive U.S. government effort to date” to name those linked with the communist state’s oppression of its people. U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power called the latest designation a “start of what will be an ongoing process” to identify and name the perpetrators.

"With these efforts, we aim to send a signal to all government officials who might be responsible for human rights abuses, including prison camp managers and guards, interrogators, and defector chasers, with the goal of changing their behavior,” Kirby said in a statement.

Seoul’s Foreign Ministry welcomed the action, saying it reaffirmed the U.S.’ “stern resolve to constantly strengthen multifaceted sanctions” against North Korea.

Last month, the U.S. Treasury declared North Korea a “primary money laundering concern,” which would restrict the financial activities of foreign banks that have ties with the country.

“By labeling Kim, it made clear once again that the regime is responsible for the rights breaches,” a senior ministry official told reporters on condition of anonymity.

“We’re expecting it will help further raise awareness over the gravity of human rights conditions in the North and reinforce related discussions and measures in the international community.”

In addition to Kim, other top officials made it to the list, including Hwang Pyong-so, the North’s No. 2 man who serves as vice chairman of the National Defense Commission, which was recently replaced by the State Affairs Commission.

The Treasury also selected officials at the Ministry of State Security in charge of political prison camps and arbitrary executions, torture and other brutalities including its chief Choe Pu-il, and the Ministry of People’s Security which runs a vast network of police stations, interrogation centers and labor camps.

Among others are senior and working-level workers from key organizations such as the Reconnaissance General Bureau that is responsible for overseas espionage operations, the ruling Workers’ Party’s Organization, and Guidance Department and Propaganda and Agitation Department.

Four of the 15 individuals and three of the entities have already been sanctioned.

With the measure, they would be subject to asset freezes and banned from traveling to the U.S. and engaging in financial transactions with U.S. financial institutions.

The State Department projected that 80,000 to 120,000 individuals are detained in the sprawling gulags, including children and other family members.

Phil Robertson, the Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch, said the latest move would convey a meaningful message to the regime, calling on Washington to carry out additional research and expand the list.

“This is an important step forward in achieving justice for the countless victims of human rights abuses in North Korea,” he said via email.

“By calling out top-level leaders and officials for their rights crimes and sanctioning them, the U.S. is leading the international community to send a clear message to mid-level North Korean officials that obeying orders to violate rights could have very negative consequences for them.”

Ko Young-hwan, a North Korean defector and now vice president of the Institute for National Security Strategy in Seoul, said the naming-and-shaming approach, especially involving Kim, serves as a robust deterrent that would drive other executives to try to improve the regime’s record, albeit via stopgap steps.

“The more we say about bringing Kim to justice, the more efforts North Korean officials and diplomats would make to thin out his responsibilities, scaling down prison camps, feeding people better and so forth,” he said during a recent seminar hosted by the U.N. in Seoul on North Korean human rights.

By Shin Hyon-hee (heeshin@heraldcorp.com)