The tyrant who forces mothers to drown their babies: Survivors of North Korean reveal chilling truth about the world's most horrific torture camp

Mr Shin would peel away the skin of a rat, scrape out its innards, chew the flesh and bones, then finish off with the rodents’ small feet.

Mr Kang prized salamanders, but they have to be eaten live.

‘The way to eat a salamander is to grab it by its tail and swallow it in one gulp, before it can discharge a foul-tasting liquid,’ he says.

In the camps, the children eat anything that moves, including earthworms. If a group of prisoners is sent to work in a field, not one animal is left alive.

Not surprisingly, the penalty for stealing food is severe. At Camp 14, one six-year-old girl was found by her teacher to have five kernels of corn in her pockets. The teacher forced the young girl to kneel in front of the class, whereupon he repeatedly beat her around the head with a wooden stick.

The class was forced to watch as her head swelled up with bruises, and blood leaked from her nose. Eventually, she was taken away. She died later that evening.