As Hollywood prepares for tonight’s premiere of a comedy film poking fun at the bizarre other world that is North Korea, two defectors have spoken out to remind us that the human rights abuses going on there are really no laughing matter.

It is now almost exactly one month since the world’s largest rights campaign groups joined forces to petition the UN to “hold North Korea accountable for these crimes against humanity”, found to include “deliberate starvation, forced labor, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced through punishment, forced abortion and infanticide”.

Speaking to the Daily Telegraph, a defector and former officer of North Korea’s special forces described how he abandoned Kim Jong-un’s regime after watching chemical and biological weapons tests on disabled children and adults.

Though it is not the first time such allegations have been made, Im Cheon-yong adds credence to the findings of the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights regarding the treatment of disabled people in the country.

In pictures: Life in North Korea Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Life in North Korea In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea Boys play soccer in the town of Hyesan in North Korea's Ryanggang province. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea Young North Korean schoolchildren help to fix pot holes in a rural road in North Korea's North Hamgyong province AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea A group of young North Koreans enjoys a picnic on the beach in Wonsan, North Korea AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea Portraits of the late North Korean leaders Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are illuminated on a building side as the sun rises over Pyongyang. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea North Korean men share a picnic lunch and North Korean-brewed and bottled Taedonggang beer along the road in North Korea's North Hwanghae province. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea North Korean people rest next to the railroad tracks in a town in North Korea's North Hamgyong province AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea A North Korean man pushes his bicycle to a village in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea North Korean residents walk on a road along a river in the town of Kimchaek, in North Korea's North Hamgyong province. AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea The remains of lunch sits on a restaurant table in the city of Wonsan, North Korea AP In pictures: Life in North Korea North Korea Farmers walk in a rainstorm with their cattle near the town of Hyesan, North Korea in Ryanggang province. AP

He told the newspaper he first witnessed tests involving anthrax and other chemical weapons in 1984, and that Kim’s regime tried to carry out such experiments “legally” by “offering to buy disabled children from their parents and [saying] they will take care of them”.

“If that doesn't work, they threaten them. They use them for chemical weapons experiments,” he said. “But not only children, they also use disabled adults.”

A still from The Interview, starring Seth Rogen and James Franco

Another defector, Ji Seong-ho, told the Telegraph he lost his limbs after an accident at the age of 14 when he fell into the path of a train because he was so exhausted by manual labour.