U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday criticized North Korea’s poor record on religious freedom, calling its treatment of people of faith worse than China’s.

Speaking at a State Department conference on religious freedom, the U.S. vice president indicated Washington would push the DPRK on its religious persecution record.

The vice president’s reference to China come with Beijing under fire for its treatment of Chinese Muslims, who are currently being held in large numbers in internment camps.

“But for all of the challenges that believers face in China, the treatment of people of faith in North Korea is much worse,”