North Koreans arriving in Beijing. Yonhap News file photo. 

The U.S. State Department has pointed out that North Korea is not making efforts to improve its serious human trafficking situation, including forcing its citizens into forced labor at the government level.

In its "2025 Trafficking in Persons Report" released on the 29th (local time), the State Department designated North Korea as Tier 3, the lowest ranking.

The State Department stated, "The North Korean government has not shown any meaningful efforts to address human trafficking," and revealed that North Korea engages in government-led human trafficking in political prison camps and labor re-education centers, and forces foreign North Korean workers into forced labor.

The State Department recommended that North Korea eradicate state-sponsored forced labor, cease the practice of punishing repatriated defectors with forced labor, and stop monitoring dispatched overseas workers and confiscating their wages.

The United States has been publishing and submitting an annual Trafficking in Persons Report to Congress since 2001, in accordance with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

This report categorizes countries into Tiers 1-3 based on their adherence to the standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and their efforts, and provides country-specific recommendations.

North Korea has been classified as Tier 3 every year since 2003.

The State Department assigned Tier 3 to 13 countries, including Afghanistan, China, Cuba, Iran, and Russia, in addition to North Korea.

South Korea was classified as Tier 1, the same as last year.

South Korea was demoted from Tier 1 to Tier 2 in the 2022 report for the first time in 20 years, but returned to Tier 1 last year.

The State Department explained, "The South Korean government fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking," and added, "The South Korean government has continued to show diligent and sustained efforts during the period of this report's preparation, and therefore maintained its Tier 1 status."

However, it pointed out issues such as a low number of related prosecutions despite reports of widespread forced labor of foreign nationals in sectors like fishing, and a lack of proactive inspection of issues concerning foreign workers employed under the Employment Permit System.

Yonhap News