UN: Inmates starved and tortured in N Korea

Inmates in North Korea’s prison camps have suffered starvation, torture and other “unspeakable atrocities”, UN human rights investigators said in their first report on violations in the reclusive state.

The paper, swiftly rejected by Pyongyang, uncovered a pattern of human rights abuses, the head of the independent inquiry told the UN Human Rights Council.

There have long been concerns about reports of atrocities including executions and torture, but they have largely been overshadowed by international alarm about North Korea’s nuclear weapons.