NK again close to bottom in global freedom index: report

This pool image distributed by Sputnik agency shows North Korea's leader Kim Jung-un during his meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Vostochny Cosmodrome in Amur region, Sept. 13, 2023. AFP-Yonhap

North Korea was again assessed as one of the most repressive countries in the world in an annual report by the U.S.-based freedom watchdog, receiving only three out of 100 points on the freedom index.

In the report, titled "Freedom in the World 2024," published by Freedom House, North Korea was given zero points out of 40 in terms of political rights and three points out of 60 in terms of civil liberties.

The only countries behind the North in the index were Syria with one point, South Sudan with one point and Turkmenistan with two points. The east African country of Eritrea received the same three points as North Korea.

In contrast, South Korea scored 83 points in the index and was categorized as a "free" country.

The organization said political oppression, human rights violations and monitoring of civilians were still rampant in the North.

North Korea has consistently been ranked in the group of the worst nations for freedom since the organization published the first annual report in 1973.

The report gives each nation a score from 1 to 100 based on indexes derived from the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and then classifies them into the three categories of "free," "partly free" and "not free." (Yonhap)