North Korea's secret gulag system officially doesn't exist, but horrifying reports about the camps have been trickling out of the country for years.

Up to 200,000 people are thought to be held as "political prisoners", and sometimes three generations of one family are held for "wrong-doing, wrong-thinking, wrong-knowledge,wrong-association, or wrong-class-background." Babies are born inside the camp, and some live their entire lives there.

Escape is difficult, but a handful have managed it, and their stories give an insight into the incredible depravity on show inside the camps.

This weekend one Korean-speaking Redditor translated a number of drawings reportedly made by those who managed to escape. More pictures without translations can be seen at the source.

Please note: While we can't vouch for the authenticity for the drawings at present, the recent escapee book "Escape From Camp 14" featured a lot of sketches of life in the gulag, suggesting to us that drawing may be a common way to get testimony from survivors (the drawings published here do not appear to be from the book).