All North Koreans who took part in local elections on Sunday voted for state-selected candidates and turnout was 99.97 percent, state media said Tuesday.

A total of 28,116 representatives were elected as deputies to assemblies at provincial, city and county level with not a single vote of opposition to the candidates, the Korean Central News Agency said.

"Only those on foreign tours or working on the oceans could not take part in the election," KCNA said.

It said the election "demonstrated the might of the single-minded unity of the revolutionary ranks and advantages of Korean-style socialism".

Leader Kim Jong-Il himself made an appearance at a polling station on Sunday to cast his vote, along with his son and heir apparent Jong-Un.

Typically, 99 percent of voters in the de facto single-party state take part in elections and 99 percent of them vote for uncontested candidates.

During each four-year term, the local assemblies convene once or twice a year to approve budgets and endorse leaders appointed by the communist party.

The North, which the Kim dynasty has ruled with an iron fist for more than six decades, held elections to its national rubber-stamp parliament in 2009.

The impoverished state was this year ranked Asia's lowest in political freedom along with Myanmar by the conservative US Heritage Foundation.

About 200,000 political prisoners are held in "horrific" conditions, according to Amnesty International.