North Korea criticizes U.S. trafficking report after receiving lowest-tier ranking

North Korea lashed out at a U.S. government report that placed it in the lowest tier for efforts to combat human trafficking, calling it “another grave politically motivated provocation of malignantly slandering” the country.

In a statement carried by the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA), a foreign ministry spokesperson said the report “ clearly proved once again the U.S. vicious and malicious intention to politicize and weaponize human rights and use them as the primary lever for its hostile policy toward the DPRK,” referring to the North by the initialism for its official name.

The U.S. State Department placed North Korea in Tier 3, the lowest ranking, in its 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report released Thursday.

The report identified a government policy or pattern of human trafficking, citing forced labor imposed on adults and children in political prison camps and correctional labor camps, as well as on North Korean workers sent abroad.

The spokesperson dismissed the report as a “deceptive” finding that “ has nothing to do with genuine human rights as an intensive expression of the hostile policy encroaching upon the sovereignty and internal affairs of our state and hurting the rights and interests of our citizens.”

The spokesperson claimed that U.S. policy toward North Korea was intended to “obliterate our people's inalienable right to existence and development,” saying this was a key reason for the country to focus more heavily on building up its strength to defend its sovereignty.

The spokesperson warned that Pyongyang will come up with countermeasures against the announcement.

"The U.S. 'human rights' racket against the DPRK, which poses a serious threat to the DPRK's sovereign rights and the rights and interests of its citizens, will be the first target of the toughest counteraction against the U.S. together with other hostile acts," the statement read.

BY JEONG HYE-JEONG [[email protected]]