The United States has rated North Korea among the worst countries in fighting human trafficking for the tenth consecutive year.

In its Trafficking in Persons Report 2012 released on Wednesday, the U.S. State Department placed 17 countries, including North Korea, Iran and Cuba, in Tier Three.

Countries in that category are considered to have failed in fully complying with the minimum standards of curbing human trafficking, and are not making active efforts to do so.

The report placed South Korea in Tier One, but noted that South Korea is “a source, transit, and destination country for men and women subjected to forced prostitution and forced labor.”