In a country of 24 million people, up to 200,000 have reportedly "disappeared" into brutal concentration camps found throughout the country.
Former prisoners say conditions are so bad that 20 to 25 percent of the prison population dies every year. [NOTE: This is the first of multiple disturbing illustrations supposedly made by a defector who spent time in the prisons.]
The North uses "guilt by association" to lock up entire families just for knowing someone convicted of "wrong thought."
Shin Dong-hyuk was born inside one camp and lived there 23 years before he was able to escape.
Source: Shin Dong-hyuk's interview with "60 Minutes."
Few have ever escaped. That's because anyone who tries, plans, or has knowledge of an escape is executed, and all prisoners are required to watch.
Source: Shin Dong-hyuk's interview with "60 Minutes."
Starvation is common, as prisoners are usually only fed gruel made of cornmeal and cabbage. "We were always hungry, and the guards always told us 'through hunger you will repent,'" Shin said. They often eat rats and insects just to stay alive.
Source: Shin Dong-hyuk's interview with "60 Minutes."
Without protein and calcium in their diet, prisoners develop hunchbacks from bending over in the fields or lose toes and fingers due to frostbite.
Guards treat prisoners as subhuman, terrorizing and torturing their captives, sometimes just for fun, according to escapees.
The tip of one of Shin's fingers was chopped off as punishment for accidentally breaking a machine while working in a factory.
Source: Shin Dong-hyuk's interview with "60 Minutes."
When he was just 13 years old, Shin was sent to an underground torture center when his mother and older brother were accused of attempting an escape. "They hung me by the ankles and they tortured me with fire."
Source: Shin Dong-hyuk's interview with "60 Minutes."
Pregnancy is strictly forbidden, except in the case of a 'marriage' arranged by the prison guards. One testified how she "witnessed a female prisoner forced to drown her own baby in a bucket."
Source: UN
They still need to get across the border to China, and if discovered, they face the possibility of being sent back.
Camps aren't limited to North Korean borders. The regime also exports slave labor to Siberia, according to a Vice report.
Source: Vice
While North Korea denies they even exist, satellite imagery shows prison camps scattered around the country.
Source: Amnesty International