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Yesterday, North Korea issued a warning to the UK after Downing Street announced its intention to impose sanctions on two organisations linked to prison camps in the country. The regime furiously denounced Boris Johson’s government after learning of the sanctions. Britain’s move essentially freezes the assets of its Ministry of State Security Bureau 7 and the Ministry of People’s Security Correctional Bureau.

No 10 said both organisations are involved in forced labour, torture and murder in North Korean prison camps.

North Korean officials warned that the UK will “pay the price” for its actions.

It added the accusation that it was a “puppet” of the US.

There are thought to be around 15 to 20 “reeducation” camps in the North.

Conditions there are life-threatening, with prisoners subject to torture and inhumane treatment.

North Koreans can find themselves locked up if they are accused of political offences or denounced as politically unreliable.

The charges are more often than not arbitrary and are intended to straighten out any dissident crinkles in the country’s social fabric.

From a young age, citizens are entered into an intense indoctrination programme.

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Accounts from North Korean escapees claim that in each academic setting, from nursery through until university, people are taught about what Kim Jong-un did at that specific point in his life, as well as other aspects of the Kim family.

In a 2018 Vox report, journalist Yochi Dreazen spoke to several North Korean experts who revealed the extremity of the propaganda programme.

Retired South Korean general, In-Bum Chun, explained that the country’s people have been “indoctrinated since childhood with the belief that Kim and his family are literal gods whose government must be protected at all costs”.

He added: “You’re talking about people who have basically been brainwashed their entire lives.”

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Kang Chol-hwan is a North Korean defector who was imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp for 10 years.

He escaped the country in 1992, and later wrote the book “The Aquariums of Pyongyang” in 2001 where he recounted his experiences.

One passage appears to reinforce the idea that North Koreans are led to believe the Kim family are descended directly from gods.

Mr Kang wrote: “To my childish eyes and to those of all my friends, Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il were perfect beings, untarnished by any base human function.

“I was convinced, as we all were, that neither of them urinated or defecated.

“Who could imagine such things as gods?”

Even in his 1992 memoir, “With the Century”, former leader Kim Il-sung revealed the Kim family’s intentions for carving out a god-like appearance of themselves.

He explained: “My grandfather’s opinion was this: If pupils peep into their teacher’s private life frequently, they lose their awe of him; the teacher must give his pupils the firm belief that their teacher neither eats nor urinates; only then can he maintain his authority at school; so a teacher should set up a screen and live behind it.”

North Korea’s most recent threats come amid a string of aggressive military action.

Last month, Kim blew up a joint liaison office with the South after non-governmental activists despoiled 500,000 balloons carrying anti-Kim leaflets.

He did, however, concede that after taking the “prevailing situation” into consideration, the North would suspend its aggression.

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