casual reminder for US readers: this is all pretty common fare in US prisons as well. the 13th amendment to the US constitution does not cover prisoners. As such, most are forced to work, given a token salary to keep up appearances, and punished with solitary confinement if they do not comply.
I find it perfectly possible to be concerned about some aspects of the US penal system without implying its equivalency to the terror endured under one of the most oppressive political regimes in the world.
Is there an implication of equivalence of any general sort of the two societies? I think this is just a rejection that north korea is somehow uniquely capable of this specific sort of terror.
https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/05/31/how-the-newest...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prison_rape_in_the_United_Stat...