Starving mums resorted to eating their own children during a great famine in North Korea, according to a man who grew up in the country.

Gim Gyu Min says he witnessed daily executions and dead bodies piling up in the streets under the brutal dictatorship of the Kim family.

The now 44-year-old was only in his 20s when the country was hit with the great famine of the 1990s.

Food became scarcer and things got harder for millions of North Koreans, resulting in severe malnutrition and ultimately death for more than 10 per cent of the population.

As people became more desperate for food, some mothers allegedly even resorted to eating their own children.

“I had heard stories about people eating their own kids, and witnessed one of the women in my neighbourhood being arrested by police and dragged away after being caught.”He said.

Anyone caught eating their relatives would be sent for public execution under different charges, Gyu Min said.

The 44-year-old said he saw his first execution when he was just six-years old.

He claims it would usually involve the condemned being taken behind a curtain and having their head smashed to knock them out, so when they were tied up they would not resist.

They would then be shot.

Years late, in a twisted turn of events, Gyu Min found himself sentenced to death for smashing a portrait of his country’s founder, Kim Il-sung.

He had become increasingly resentful of the regime and smashing the portrait at a polling station during provincial elections was his act of resistance against it.

He was arrested and sent to prison where he was told he was going to be executed.

He immediately decided to swallow a metal nail from the floor so that he would be taken to hospital where he could then attempt to escape.

During surgery to remove the nail, he did manage to escape and walked for 40 days to reach the border with China in a desperate attempt to save his life.

Here, he fell in love with a Chinese girl but was arrested again by Chinese authorities for being an illegal immigrant.

He was then sent to a holding camp with other North Korean defectors before being deported and imprisoned in a prison camp.

Gyu Min said he witnessed unimaginable violations against human rights at the camp, including forced abortions and beatings.

He eventually managed to escape again but this time he knew he could not search for his family, he would have to disappear.

Years later, he found out his parents had died after being punished for his defection and his brother was shot and killed.

Now, he is a filmmaker and has dedicated his life to highlighting the horrific human rights abuses he witnessed under the communist regime.