The U.S State Department released its 2010 Human Rights Report on Friday, assessing that North Korea’s human rights record last year remained grim.

The report said North Koreans were denied freedom of speech, press, assembly, and association, with the government attempting to control all information.

The report also described the North as “a dictatorship under the absolute rule of Kim Jong-il,” but stopped short of using provocative expressions.

The report also said “there continued to be reports of extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, arrests of political prisoners, harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, and torture.”