An annual U.S. report on human rights has assessed that significant human rights abuses are widespread in North Korea and there are no signs of improvement. 

The U.S. State Department presented the assessment in its 2023 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices released on Monday, local time. 

The report said that last year, North Korea began to ease the restrictions on cross-border travel that it had imposed at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and there were reports that forced repatriations of North Koreans had resumed.

The report said that the significant human rights issues in North Korea included arbitrary or unlawful killings, enforced disappearance, torture, coercive medical practices and arbitrary arrest or detention. 

Citing escapees, nongovernmental organizations and UN officials, the U.S. also noted widespread extrajudicial executions of political prisoners and North Korean escapees in the North. 

The department publishes the human rights report every year assessing human rights conditions in countries around the world, including South and North Korea. 

The most recent report, the fourth under the Joe Biden administration, is generally similar to the previous report in terms of its North Korea-related content.