WASHINGTON (Yonhap News) -- The U.S. government said Monday that North Korea‘s continued crackdown on religious freedom is “deplorable,” but it sidestepped a question on the possibility of change under Pyongyang’s new leadership.

“North Korea continues to be on our countries of particular concern list. The situation is really deplorable,” Suzan Johnson Cook, ambassador at large for religious freedom at the State Department, said at a press briefing on the update of its International Religious Freedom Report.

The report covers a range of nations notorious for oppressing religious freedom, including China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Eritrea.

But it does not address whether there is any sign of change in North Korea‘s stance on the issue since its power transition half a year ago, as it is based on an assessment in 2011.

Cook was responding to a question about whether there is a sign of change in the North’s religious freedom issue as it is ruled by a young new leader known to have been educated in the West.