U.S. keeps Korea in Tier 1 group for human trafficking elimination efforts for third straight year

The U.S. State Department has kept South Korea in the highest tier of countries in terms of antihuman trafficking efforts for the third consecutive year while maintaining North Korea in the lowest category over state-sponsored forced labor practices, a report showed on Thursday.

The State Department released the 2026 Trafficking in Persons Report, on which South Korea was listed in the Tier 1 group of 33 countries and territories, including the United States, Britain, Taiwan, France, Germany, Australia, Singapore, Israel and Denmark.

In its tier placement, the report cited various efforts by Seoul, including increasing investigations and convictions, updating guidelines to provide potential victims with access to emergency support among other efforts.

“The government continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period. Therefore, the ROK remained on Tier 1,” the report said, referring to South Korea’s official name, the Republic of Korea.

However, the report also noted that weak sentencing undermined accountability for traffickers in South Korea and concluded that the number of cases of adult sex trafficking and labor trafficking pursued by law enforcement remained “disproportionately low compared to estimates of the scale of the crime.”

The department put North Korea in the Tier 3 group that includes China, Russia, Iran, Cuba, Afghanistan and Cambodia. Pyongyang was placed in the lowest tier for the 24th consecutive year.

It pointed out that the North Korean government did not demonstrate any meaningful efforts to address human trafficking.

“During the reporting period, there was a government policy or pattern of human trafficking in political prison camps and ‘labor training centers’ as part of an established system of political repression, in the mass mobilizations of adults and children, and in the imposition of forced labor conditions on North Korean workers overseas,” it said.

It concluded that the North used proceeds from state-sponsored forced labor to fund government operations.

Furthermore, the department assessed that many North Koreans working overseas are subjected to excessive working hours and sometimes work in hazardous conditions and without access to their passports.

“These workers face threats of government reprisals against them or their relatives in the DPRK if they attempt to escape or complain to outside parties,” it said. DPRK stands for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, North Korea’s official name.

Yonhap