The officials include Minister of State Security and leader Kim Jong Un's younger sister, Efe news reported.

"The North Korean regime not only engages in severe human rights abuses, but it also implements rigid censorship policies and conceals its inhumane and oppressive behaviour," said Acting Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) John E. Smith.

The list also includes Kim Won Hong, the Minister of State Security, a body that Washington considers responsible for torture and inhumane treatment in the country's network of political prison camps.