North Korea remains at the bottom of an annual list of the world's most repressive countries.

In its report for 2009, the private U.S. organization “Freedom House” said that nine countries --- including North Korea, Myanmar and Libya --- received the lowest score, a seven, for both political rights and civil liberties out of 194 countries surveyed.

Meanwhile, South Korea received the highest score of “one” for political rights and a score of “two” for civil liberties.

The report said that the Middle East continues to be the most repressive region and that Africa saw the most significant deterioration in human rights.