North Korean and Zimbabwean leaders Kim Jong-il and Robert Mugabe have been ranked as the world's worst two dictators by an annual survey which regards the African nation as among the world's ten most failed states.

A list released by Foreign Policy/Fund for Peace ranks Mugabe second after Kim, who tops the organisation's 2010 list of the world's 23 worst dictators.

The report heaps blame upon Mugabe for Zimbabwe's socioeconomic and political ills.

"Mugabe has arrested and tortured the opposition, squeezed his economy into astounding negative growth and billion-per cent inflation, and funnelled off a juicy cut for himself using currency manipulation and offshore accounts," the group notes in its report.

George Charamba, who is the official spokesperson for the president could not be reached for comment on the latest ratings on nation's leader.

North Korea's leader is listed as "a personality-cult-cultivating isolationist with a taste for fine French cognac, Kim has pauperised his people, allowed famine to run rampant, and thrown hundreds of thousands in prison camps (where as many as 200,000 languish today) - all the while spending his country's precious few resources on a nuclear programme".

Earlier this week the Foreign Policy/Fund for Peace ranked Zimbabwe as one of the world's top ten failed states based on factors including economy, human rights record and security.

The annual failed states index uses metrics including security threats, economic implosion, human rights violations and refugee flows.

Since the index was published for the first time in 2005, the top ten slots have rotated among just 15 countries, and Foreign Policy said it seems that state failure "is a chronic condition".

The organisation's 2010 failed state index says the world's top ten most vulnerable nations are: Somalia, Chad, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Central African Republic, Guinea and Pakistan.

Last week, a United Nations agency, in its annual report, said Zimbabweans still top the world list of asylum seekers.

Source: In the News.co.uk