A. U.S. federal government commission has recommended that the U.S. government designate North Korea as a country of particular concern for violations of religious freedom.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom made the recommendation to the U.S. State Department on Monday.

The commission is an independent, bipartisan U.S. federal government agency created by Congress to promote religious freedom abroad and make policy recommendations to the president, secretary of state and Congress.

The commission released its annual report on Monday, recommending the U.S. designate 15 countries including North Korea as "countries of particular concern" for violating religious freedom.

North Korea has been on the U.S. religious freedom blacklist every year since 2001.

The commission said in the report that in 2021, religious freedom conditions in North Korea remained among the worst in the world.

The report said that North Korea’s ruling ideology, known as Juche, forbids religions and other ideologies, and the ten principles for the establishment of a monolithic ideological system inherently deny North Korean citizens religious freedom.