The U.S government said that the human rights situation in North Korea is “deplorable.”

"Human rights conditions in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea remained deplorable. The government was responsible for extrajudicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, arrests of political prisoners, and torture," the State Department said in its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2013.

As Secretary of State John Kerry cited the report by the U.N. Commission of Inquiry (COI) on North Korea’s human rights situation, he pointed out it “recently found clear and compelling evidence of wholesale torture and crimes against humanity.”

Additionally, the report again noted the lack of efforts by China to protect North Korean defectors.

Source: YONHAP NEWS AGENCY 02/28/2014