LONDON: Britain announced a new package of sanctions against Belarus on Friday, saying four individuals and three entities had been targeted over human rights violations and the ongoing facilitation of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The British government said the coordinated action with international partners marked the fourth anniversary of the “deeply flawed” 2020 presidential elections in Belarus.
Most independent observers believe President Alexander Lukashenko lost that election. He hung on to power by imprisoning thousands to crush months of street protests with the help of his ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Commanding officers of four Belarusian penal colonies in which political prisoners have been detained were among those sanctioned on Friday.
“Four years on from the brutal scenes we witnessed in Belarus, Lukashenko’s relentless crackdown on civil society has shown no signs of abating,” Foreign Secretary David Lammy said.
“We stand with the people of Belarus and their pursuit of freedom and democracy and call on the regime to release all political prisoners immediately and unconditionally.”
The three entities sanctioned included two machine tool manufacturers who have exported goods to Russia for use in the Russian military industrial sector, and one business affiliated with the Belarusian government which has done business in the defense sector.
Britain also announced 2.5 million pounds ($3 million) of funding to support Belarusian human rights and civil society causes.
![]()
Britain imposes fresh sanctions on Belarus over human rights violations
Short Url
https://arab.news/gkv37
Britain imposes fresh sanctions on Belarus over human rights violations
- The British government said the coordinated action with international partners marked the fourth anniversary of the “deeply flawed” 2020 presidential elections in Belarus
- Most independent observers believe President Alexander Lukashenko lost that election
North Korea’s Kim sacks vice premier, rails against ‘incompetence’
SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has fired his vice premier, compared him to a goat and railed against “incompetent” officials, state media said Tuesday, in a rare and very public broadside against apparatchiks at the opening of a critical factory.
Vice Premier Yang Sung Ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.”
“Please, Comrade Vice Premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said.
“He is ineligible for an important duty,” he added.
“Put simply, it was like hitching a cart to a goat — an accidental mistake in our cadre appointment process,” the North Korean leader explained.
“After all, it is an ox that pulls a cart, not a goat.”
Nuclear-armed North Korea, which is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programs, has long struggled with its moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.
Kim has been quick to scold lazy officials for alleged mismanagement of economic policy but such a public dismissal is very rare.
Touring the opening of an industrial machinery complex on Monday, Kim blasted cadres who for “too long been accustomed to defeatism, irresponsibility and passiveness.”
Yang was “unfit to be entrusted with heavy duties,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
And he urged a quick turnaround in the “centuries-old backwardness of the economy and build a modernized and advanced one capable of firmly guaranteeing the future of our state.”
Images released by Pyongyang showed a stern-looking Kim delivering a speech at the venue in South Hamgyong Province in the country’s frigid northeast, with workers in attendance wearing green uniforms and matching grey hats.
- Lazy officials -
The impoverished North has long prioritized its military and banned nuclear weapons programs over providing for its people.
It is highly vulnerable to natural disasters including flood and drought due to a chronic lack of infrastructure, deforestation and decades of state mismanagement.
The new machine complex makes up part of a large machinery-manufacturing belt linking the northeast to Wonsan further south, “accounting for about 16 percent of North Korea’s total machinery output,” according to Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies.
Kim’s public dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song Thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed in 2013 after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew, Yang said.
The North Korean leader is “using public accountability as a shock tactic to warn party officials,” he told AFP.
Pyongyang is gearing up for its first congress of its ruling party in five years, with analysts expecting it in the coming weeks.
Economic policy, as well as defense and military planning, are likely to be high on the agenda.
Last month, Kim vowed to root out “evil” at a major meeting of Pyongyang’s top brass.
State media did not offer specifics, though it did say the ruling party had revealed numerous recent “deviations” in discipline — a euphemism for corruption.
Vice Premier Yang Sung Ho was sacked “on the spot,” the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said, in a speech in which Kim attacked “irresponsible, rude and incompetent leading officials.”
“Please, Comrade Vice Premier, resign by yourself when you can do it on your own before it is too late,” Kim reportedly said.
“He is ineligible for an important duty,” he added.
“Put simply, it was like hitching a cart to a goat — an accidental mistake in our cadre appointment process,” the North Korean leader explained.
“After all, it is an ox that pulls a cart, not a goat.”
Nuclear-armed North Korea, which is under multiple sets of sanctions over its weapons programs, has long struggled with its moribund state-managed economy and chronic food shortages.
Kim has been quick to scold lazy officials for alleged mismanagement of economic policy but such a public dismissal is very rare.
Touring the opening of an industrial machinery complex on Monday, Kim blasted cadres who for “too long been accustomed to defeatism, irresponsibility and passiveness.”
Yang was “unfit to be entrusted with heavy duties,” Kim said, according to KCNA.
And he urged a quick turnaround in the “centuries-old backwardness of the economy and build a modernized and advanced one capable of firmly guaranteeing the future of our state.”
Images released by Pyongyang showed a stern-looking Kim delivering a speech at the venue in South Hamgyong Province in the country’s frigid northeast, with workers in attendance wearing green uniforms and matching grey hats.
- Lazy officials -
The impoverished North has long prioritized its military and banned nuclear weapons programs over providing for its people.
It is highly vulnerable to natural disasters including flood and drought due to a chronic lack of infrastructure, deforestation and decades of state mismanagement.
The new machine complex makes up part of a large machinery-manufacturing belt linking the northeast to Wonsan further south, “accounting for about 16 percent of North Korea’s total machinery output,” according to Yang Moo-jin of the University of North Korean Studies.
Kim’s public dismissal of Yang mirrors past cases such as Jang Song Thaek, Kim’s uncle, who was executed in 2013 after being accused of plotting to overthrow his nephew, Yang said.
The North Korean leader is “using public accountability as a shock tactic to warn party officials,” he told AFP.
Pyongyang is gearing up for its first congress of its ruling party in five years, with analysts expecting it in the coming weeks.
Economic policy, as well as defense and military planning, are likely to be high on the agenda.
Last month, Kim vowed to root out “evil” at a major meeting of Pyongyang’s top brass.
State media did not offer specifics, though it did say the ruling party had revealed numerous recent “deviations” in discipline — a euphemism for corruption.
Latest updates
© 2026 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.