The U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea says the communist state’s government is turning the country into "one big prison.”

Vitit Muntarbhorn made the remark in a report due to be examined at the U.N. Human Rights Council on Monday.

He added that the totalitarian nature of the ruling elite in the North has created a pervasive “state of fear” where no dissent is tolerated. He also said that the human rights situation in the country can be described as being in a league of its own given the multiple particularities and anomalies that abound.

Muntarbhorn stressed that the U.N. Security Council and the U.N. International Criminal Court should play a more active role in repressing the North’s human rights violations.

On the food shortage situation in the North, Muntarbhorn said that the problem is not simply food shortage but distorted food distribution, from which the elite benefits.