We suffered starvation and torture, We fight to eat Insects, Mice, Snakes. They make us eat Soil, Animal Droppings, etc. When we don't they beat us to eat them.
The testimonies, one after another, have been damning, disturbing and, at points, excruciating.
A North Korean prison camp survivor told of a pregnant woman in a condition of near-starvation who gave birth to a baby -- a new life born against all odds in a grim camp. A security agent heard the baby's cries and beat the mother as a punishment.
She begged him to let her keep the baby, but he kept beating her.
With shaking hands, the mother was forced to pick up her newborn and put the baby face down in water until the cries stopped and a water bubble formed from the newborn's mouth.
It's just one example of the kind of testimony heard during an 11-month inquiry into alleged violations of human rights in North Korea, and documented in a report released by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights on Monday.
The commission concluded that North Korea has committed crimes against humanity. The commission investigated issues regarding the right to food, prison camps, torture and inhuman treatment, arbitrary detention, discrimination, freedom of expression, the right to life, freedom of movement, and enforced disappearances, including abductions of other citizens.
The panel reported a stunning catalog of torture and the widespread abuse of even the weakest of North Koreans that reveal a portrait of a brutal state "that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world."
It remains to be seen what impact the report might have and whether China, a member of the U.N. Security Council and staunch ally of North Korea, will block action seeking human rights redress.
Collection of evidence
Full map of the inhumane North Korean Prisons
Since its creation last year, the commission of inquiry has examined satellite imagery, evidence and testimonies from more than 100 victims, witnesses and experts regarding North Korea. Some of the testimonies were held confidentially because of protection concerns for family still remaining in North Korea.
International attention on North Korea has previously focused on halting its nuclear weapons program, but, in response to increasingly detailed reports of human rights abuses emerging from the isolated state, the U.N.'s Human Rights Council elected in March to establish the commission.
For many North Koreans who testified, it was an acknowledgment of the sufferings they endured living and fleeing the regime. North Korea is said to practice "guilt by association" -- punishing members of a person's family and succeeding generations for one person's perceived misdeeds.
Pyongyang has refused to cooperate with the investigation and rejects the commission's validity. The commission of inquiry requested access to North Korea and also invited its authorities to examine its evidence and also contribute in the process.
In May 2013, North Korea sent a letter saying it "totally and categorically rejects the Commission of Inquiry" and has not answered subsequent letters, said Michael Kirby, the chair of the U.N. Commission of Inquiry.
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