Mr. Kim Kwang-il was held in a North Korean prison for two years and five months. This video is based on drawings and testimony he gave the U.N.'s Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights.
Kim testified to brutal treatment at the hands of the prison guards. In the "pigeon position," for example, his chest was beaten until he vomited blood.
He also described the horrifying food the prisoners were forced to eat. “They fed us some things that not even the pigs would eat," he said. "Like for example rotten cucumber."
If they refused to eat the rotten food, the prisoners were punished. They were also beaten and tortured for trivial offenses like snoring while sleeping.
During his time at Ordinary Prison #12, Kim recounted that he witnessed hundreds of deaths, and was personally involved in the disposal of the bodies of over 100 prisoners.
The bodies were often eaten by rodents and left to rot in the summer heat.
