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A North Korean defector says the American student imprisoned by the regime faces 15 years in a detention camp similar to Auschwitz.

Kang Chol-hwan, who was a prisoner at Yodok political prison camp in North Korea for 10 years, has compared the horrors of the dictatorship’s prisons to the concentration camps of Nazi Germany.

His comments will make grim reading for the family and friends of Otto Warmbier, the 21-year-old American student sentenced to 15 years hard labour after falling foul of Kim Jong-un's vile regime.

Chol-hwan's family was sent there after his grandfather was accused of treason by the Kim regime, but he managed to escape through China in 1992.

He described how prisoners are woken up at 5am and are forced to work until sunset.

Read more:WWIII fears as Kim Jong-un threatens China with 'nuclear war' and declares country 'an enemy'

(Image: Amnesty International)

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He said: "We are forced to watch public executions. We are physically abused - hit and tortured. I think of it as another form of Auschwitz.

"These work camps are like products of Nazism, and an abusive government needs elements such as Nazi concentration camps.

He told the Ask Me Anything session on Reddit: "They just have different ways of killing people.”

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(Image: Barcroft Media)

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Mr Warmbier was caught stealing a Kim-Jong-Il poster from a North Korean hotel.

He said looting the poster was the 'worst mistake of his life' after he was sentenced to more than a decade of forced labour in a prison camp on charges of subversion.

(Image: Getty)

The banner reads: "Let's arm ourselves strongly with Kim Jong-il patriotism!"

Warmbier, a student at the University of Virginia, was found guilty of attempting to steal the poster, which he said was requested by a member of his church group.

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Kang also spoke about the dangers he faced even after escaping the regime.

He wrote: "In August 2015, an axe was delivered to my office (in South Korea) with a writing saying that if I don’t stop what I am doing, I will be murdered.

(Image: Barcroft)

"The police has been investigating this and the investigation is coming to a close. In 2012, an assassin sent from North Korea was caught following me and keeping track of my whereabouts.

"He is facing trial now. Currently, there is a police protecting me 24/7. Although North Korea is threatening me, I cannot stop what I am doing.

"I am upset that although I have earned freedom, I am still facing threats."

Kang wrote a best-selling book about his experiences called the Aquariums of Pyongyang.

He has also worked as a journalist and human rights activist.