North Korea on Tuesday condemned the outgoing Obama administration for blacklisting seven North Korean officials, including the younger sister of leader Kim Jong-un, and two agencies for their roles in human right violations, claiming it is the "last-ditch efforts of those whose days are numbered" to maintain a hostile policy. 
On Wednesday, the US State Department imposed human rights sanctions on the personnel and entities, including the Labor Ministry, by prohibiting their entry into the US, freezing their assets in the US and banning American transactions with them. 
The sanctions were the second of their kind, following those that blacklisted leader Kim, 10 other top officials and five state agencies in July. 
"This is nothing but Washington's last resort to tarnish the image of the DPRK," the state-run (North) Korean Central News Agency said in a commentary. 
The US strategies of making a preemptive nuclear attack and slapping extreme sanctions on Pyongyang have become threats to the security of its mainland, the agency said. 
Instead of learning a lesson from the Bush administration which pushed the North to gain access to nuclear weapons, the Obama administration has persistently resorted to the worst nuclear threats and blackmail and the harshest-ever sanctions against it, the agency insisted. 
In countering US hostile moves, the North has succeeded in diversifying, miniaturizing and standardizing nuclear warheads and increased the types of delivery means, the agency added.

Source: QNA