North Korean prisons: UN reports torture, starvation and execution

After spending more than two and a half years in a North Korea prison, Canadian pastor, Hyeon Soo Lim, was freed from jail Wednesday.

This marks the second Westerner to be released from a North Korean prison over the last few months.

In July, U.S. student Otto Warmbier was released from a North Korean prison after spending 17 months there. The 22-year-old returned home in a coma and died in a Cincinnati hospital days later.

His family said in a statement: “Unfortunately, the awful torturous mistreatment our son received at the hands of the North Koreans ensured that no other outcome was possible beyond the sad one we experienced today.”

There are an estimated 200,000 people, including children, imprisoned in North Korea, according to a report by the UN Commission of Inquiry’s on Human Rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

In the report, first-hand testimonials were gathered by former guards and prisoners, which detailed cases of starvation, rape, arbitrary detention and mutilation.

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Michael Kirby, the panel’s chairman, said that the atrocities taking place in North Korea were “strikingly similar” to the crimes of Nazi Germany during the Second World War.

North Korea has repeatedly denied such reports.

Virtually impossible to escape

Most prisoners are incarcerated for life without a chance of leaving and escaping the prison is “virtually impossible,” the report stated.

“The camps are surrounded by high perimeter fences that are electrified at a deadly voltage and further secured by barbed wire. Pit traps and minefields are also placed around the perimeter fence,” according to the UN report.

Camps are surrounded by many armed guards and prisoners in the camps are encouraged to control and monitor other prisoners. They are then rewarded with more food if they do so, the report also stated.

WATCH: American, Matthew Miller describes prison life in North Korea

Inhumane treatment

Amnesty International and the UN have both cited inhumane conditions in North Korean prison camps and said inmates are subjected to torture and execution. According to Amnesty International, around 40 per cent of prisoners die from malnutrition and live in cells where it is either impossible to stand or lie down.

The organization also reported that prisoners have been so hungry many eat rats, snakes and pig feed in order to survive.

Former prison guards told Amnesty International that inmates were forced to dig their own graves with female prisoners raped by visiting officials.

“When you get to this prison you are not human, you are just like animals, and as soon as you get to this prison, you have to crawl just like animals,” a former prisoner told the UN in the inquiry.

The UN report said there are torture chambers equipped with water tanks, in which prisoners are immersed until they feel like they’re drowning. Rooms also have wall shackles that are specially arranged to hang people upside down.

Testimonies also showed people can be beaten to death, with one interviewee saying: “Some crimes were considered not worth wasting bullets on.”

WATCH: Americans held in North Korea speaking out about their detainment

With files from the Associated Press and Reuters