North Korea’s religious freedom is of “particular concern” according to the 2016 report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

The catergorization means the DPRK joins Burma, China and Vietnam in the top tier of countries in the East Asia Pacific which provide very limited or only nominal religious freedoms to their citizens.

“Based on the North Korean government’s systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom, USCIRF again recommends in 2016 that North Korea be designated a ‘country of particular concern,’ or CPC, under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA),” the report reads.

The report notes that while