Dozens of North Korean prisoners starve to death at labour camps after Kim Jong Un's strict Covid rules prevent them getting food 

Dozens of North Korean prisoners have starved to death at labour camps after Kim Jong Un's strict Covid rules prevented them from getting food. 

Kaechon Prison in South Pyongan province provides food for inmates but it is not enough.

This is because prisoners have to perform hard labour every day. Surviving in the camp is reliant on their families bringing them extra food when they visit. 

A major outbreak of the virus meant that North Korea declared a 'national maximum emergency' in May.

According to Radio Free Asia, during the emergency, families who lived a long distance away from the prison could not visit.

This caused malnutrition cases to increase among those in prison. It resulted in he deaths of 20 women.

A source told RFA: 'Last week, I visited my sister at Kaechon Prison and she told me 20 female prisoners died from malnutrition and harsh labor.'

The source added that before the pandemic, three or four prisoners died each month.   

And they explained that their younger sister is serving five years in prison for making phone calls to a family member who had escaped the country and resettling in South Korea.

They added: 'There are still about 50 prisoners diagnosed with malnutrition in the women's prison and they were isolated into a group of sick inmates. They can't get up or sit down. They seem like they are waiting to die.'

The source explained that guards are tasked with entering the prison and piling the bodies on one side when a death happens.

Prisoners then have to transport the dead bodies on a stretcher to bury them in the mountains behind the prison, at the end of each month. 

The prison only provides inmates with a single rice ball each day, not enough for them to survive on by itself

Elsewhere, prisoners in Changchun Prison in Ryanggang can have family visits once every three months. 

Also due to Covid measures, movement was restricted and those closer to the prison could provide food to their families but those further out could not. 

Those in places such as Ryanggang province can only bring food once every six months with the help of servi-cha- trucks or vans owned privately and used to send goods or people to places that are not accessible by trains.

Because of this, some people in Chungsan Prison have not had any food from families during the pandemic.

It means that 15 women have died of malnutrition in the past month alone because of a lack of outside food. 

The second source explained that when a prisoner dies at Chungsan Prison, the prison calls inmate's hometown police and asks them to take the body back to the family. 

But because of COVID, families were asked to take responsibility for the body. Bodies at Chungsan Prison are rolled up in straw bags and buried around the prison if the family do not arrive in time.