The U.S. State Department has strongly denounced China over human rights conditions in an annual report on political freedom and civil liberties.

In the report released on Thursday, the department said the Chinese government “stepped up efforts to silence political activists and resorted to extralegal measures.”

The report stated that China is forcibly repatriating North Korean escapees and is arresting and detaining individuals who are helping the escapees.

The department cited China, North Korea and Iran as countries that have extremely poor human rights conditions.

On South Korea, the department said that “the primary human rights problems reported were the government's interpretation of national security and other laws to limit freedom of expression and restrict access to the Internet as well as incidents of hazing in the military.”