The rather tragic death of the American college student, who was brutally tortured inside North Korea, once again has put the focus back on the living conditions in the country ruled by Kim Jong-un.



American reports called Otto Warmbier, "a smart and immensely likeable kid" from Wyoming, Ohio. A student of the University of Virginia, he embarked on a trip to China in 2015 and it was there he came across a Chinese tour company that promised to take travellers on a journey to "places that their mom's won't ever agree to."

Otto booked himself a four-day New Year's trip to North Korea. But on January 2, 2016, while his co-travellers were allowed to board the flight back home, he was detained at the Pyongyang International Airport.

Two months later, North Korea telecasted a confession from Otto, who stole a state propaganda banner from the hotel. The North Korean regime sentenced him to 15 years of hard labour.

That was the last, the world saw of him. Pictures of him breaking down at the NK court after the sentencing left a deep impact globally. Last week, the North Koreans agreed to send him home. But he came back in a vegetative state and was declared dead on Monday.

It is literally hard to imagine what the 22-year-old went through in North Korea during his one and a half year-long detention. The survivors of North Korean prisons compare it to the Nazi death camps. According to a report, an estimated 200,000 people - most of them victims of Kim Jong-un's despotic rule, live in utter wretchedness. In these camps, food is always in short supply, the prisoners live off on rats and are made to plough fields for 12 hours a day.

the prisoners live off on rats and are made to plough fields for 12 hours a day.

In 2014, the UN investigators spoke out for the first time on the condition of prisoners inside these camps, where "Nazi-era" like atrocities was being unleashed on the inmates. Similarly, a video documentary released by the Human Rights Watch contains testimonies from North Korean inmates and even prison guards.

A former prison guard from the infamous Hoeryong concentration camp, more popularly known as Camp 22, revealed in the Human Rights Watch video, on how the inmates due to food shortage would look for undigested corn inside cow dungs.

In the same video, an inmate narrated on how the guards were taught to be cruel."Every day, all prisoners were called out and made to kneel down.Then they were asked to open their mouth. And then a prison official will spit in their mouths. Anyone who gagged was beaten up brutally," the former inmate said.

a prison official will spit in their mouths. Anyone who gagged was beaten up brutally

The reason why most North Korean don't try to rebel is the fear that the brutal regime would not only imprison the so-called culprit but three generation of his or her family will be sent to the hard-labour camps.

Watch brutal NK torture video