By Kim Eun-ji

The two Koreas showed a stark difference in the U.S. annual report on human trafficking, released on June 19, which covers 185 countries.

North Korea was placed in Tier 3, the worst and last of the four grades, against South Korea’s Tier 1. The placing was determined on the “extent of government action to combat trafficking rather than the size of the problem,” according to the report.

The 33 nations in Tier 1 have acknowledged the existence of human trafficking and made efforts to address the problem, the report said.

North Korea does not fully comply with the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s minimum standards and is not making significant efforts to do so.

The report also pointed out Korean sailors abused Indonesian migrant laborers under the section Exploiting the World’s Oceans.

“[The laborers’] alleged physical and psychological abuses as well as severe underpayment or nonpayment of wages by Korean fishing vessels operating under contract to New Zealand companies,” said the report.

“This year’s report tells us that we are making a lot of progress. Twenty-nine countries were upgraded from a lower tier to a higher one,” said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Clinton noted, however, that an estimation of 27 million “modern slaves” are still suffering as victims of human trafficking.