WASHINGTON: According to the US State Department, North Korea continued to severely restrict religious freedom and other basic human rights in 2021.  According to the Department of State's 2021 country report on international religious freedom, up to 70,000 North Koreans may be imprisoned for their religious views.

"The DPRK has been designated as a 'Country of Particular Concern' (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 since 2001 for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom," the report said, referring to North Korea by its official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, according to reports.

For the 20th consecutive year the State Department recognised North Korea as a state violation of religious freedom.   In 2020, the country was one of just ten countries identified as a "country of particular concern." The report goes on to say that since Pyongyang began implementing an extraordinary border closure in 2020 as a precaution against the Covid-19 outbreak, access to North Korea has shrunk even further.

"People's rights to freedom of expression, including access to information, freedom of association and peaceful assembly, and freedom of thought, conscience, and religion were further restricted in the DPRK as a result of the Covid-19 restrictions." According to the Department, the North holds "50,000 to 70,000 civilians in prison for being Christian," citing a report by Open Doors USA, a US-based NGO.

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