U.S. State Department says human rights in N. Korea remain very serious

The U.S. State Department, in its latest report on human rights, says the situation in North Korea remains very serious.

The 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released on Tuesday local time, said the regime maintains its control through brutality and coercion including executions, physical abuse, enforced disappearances and collective punishment.

It said that in the past year, there has been "no significant change" in the North's human rights.

The report lists serious abuses in the North, including killings, disappearances, torture, forced medical practices, arbitrary detention, repression abroad, limits on speech, press, and religion, coerced abortions, human trafficking and forced labor, child labor and bans on independent unions.