Anchor: The U.S. continued to apply pressure on North Korea regarding human rights conditions in the country in its annual human rights report. However, it deleted the word "egregious," which had been included last year.
Our Bae Joo-yon has more.

Report: The U.S. sent a mix of tough and moderate messages to North Korea on Wednesday in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2018. 

In a special briefing on the report, Michael Kozak, the head of the U.S. State Department’s human rights and democracy bureau, said North Korea made no progress on human rights even as it was carrying on dialogue with Washington. 

[Sound bite: Michael Kozak - Senior Bureau Official for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. State Department]
“We haven’t noticed any progress on human rights, so we keep – that’s why we’re calling out their practices and we keep pushing on this.” 

The report described North Korea as “an authoritarian state led by the Kim family for 70 years.” It noted that shortly after Kim Jong-il’s death in 2011, his son Kim Jong-un was named marshal of the North and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army. 

Nevertheless, the U.S. removed the word "egregious" in describing North Korea's human rights violations. 

In similar fashion, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo pressured the North to fulfill its commitment to denuclearization, but was also optimistic that the North Korean leader was willing to dismantle his nuclear weapons program. 

In an interview with a local broadcaster in Houston on Wednesday, Pompeo said North Korea has stopped testing missiles and nuclear weapons and the U.S. believes it can continue to maintain this state. 

When asked about the recent activity at the North's Dongchang-ri missile site, the secretary refused to elaborate, citing it as an intelligence matter, but added there's still work to be done and that the North Koreans have yet to fulfill the commitment made by Chairman Kim.

Pompeo also met with UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday. The two men are believed to have discussed the implementation of UN sanctions on the North. 
Bae Joo-yon, KBS World Radio News.