North Korea’s prisons are ‘worse than Auschwitz’ claims war crimes judge who survived Nazi death camps as a child

A NAZI concentration camp survivor has said North Korea's brutal political prisons are worse than Auschwitz.

Thomas Buergenthal, a former International Court of Justice judge, this week called on tyrannical dictator Kim Jong-un to be trialled for crimes against humanity.

As a child he was housed in ungodly squalor at Hitler's evil death factories Auschwitz and Sachsenhausen.

But he claimed even these are outmatched in their depravity by the remote work camps where undesirables are locked up by the enslaving North Korean regime.

Mr Buergenthal said: "I believe that the conditions in the [North] Korean prison camps are as terrible, or even worse, than those I saw and experienced in my youth in these Nazi camps and in my long professional career in the human rights field”.

North Korea says the camps no longer operate, despite the fact they are clearly visible in satellite images.

Mr Buergenthal is one of three jurists to conclude Kim Jong-un should be hauled to court for his authoritarian use of brutal political prisons to control the population.

Their report for the United Nations was presented at a meeting on Monday.

It cites horrific details of systematic murder, including infanticide, and torture, persecution of Christians, rape, forced abortions, starvation and overwork leading to “countless deaths”.

Based on the testimony and evidence of defectors, former prisoners, prison guards and experts on the camps, it says: "[North Korea] continues to deny the very existence of these political prisons.

“Yet, detailed satellite imagery, as well as the corroborated testimony of scores of former prisoners and state actors with first-hand knowledge of the prisons, established the existence of this prison system, and the horrific practices that occur therein, beyond any doubt.”

In October we told the story of North Korean defector Choi Kwanghyuk, 55, who was tortured by the regime because of his Christianity.

The three jurists see ample evidence that Kim can be charged with 10 of the 11 internationally recognised war crimes — including murder, enslavement, torture and sexual violence.

Accounts from the camps tell of summary executions of starving prisoners caught scavenging for food.

Abortions are performed by injecting motor oil into the wombs of pregnant women, according to a former North Korean army nurse.

Hundreds of thousands of inmates are estimated to have died in camps over the years.

Many are innocent family members of North Korean citizens deemed a "class enemy" for any minor digression from the strict regime's rule.

Navi Pillay, another of the three international jurists, said: "There is not a comparable situation anywhere in the world, past or present".

"This is really an atrocity at the maximum level, where the whole population is subject to intimidation.”

North Korea’s UN Mission strongly condemned Monday’s meeting, calling it “a desperate act of the hostile forces".