If American soldier Travis King really did defect to North Korea to escape racism, as Pyongyang claims, he may be disappointed to find he’s sought refuge in what is arguably one of the most racist countries in the world.

DPRK state media reported on Wednesday that King fled to North Korea because of “inhuman maltreatment and racial discrimination” and “the unequal American society,” but the soldier now finds himself in a country that treats interracial marriage like a form of pollution and even carries out forced abortions on ethnically-mixed babies.