Prisons in North Korea

Prisons in North Korea(often referred to by Western media and critics as "North Koreangulags") have conditions that are unsanitary, life-threatening and are comparable to historicalconcentration camps. A significant number of inmates have died each year,since they are subject totortureandinhumane treatment.Publicand secret executions of inmates, including children, especially in cases of attempted escape, are commonplace.Infanticides(and infant killings upon birth)also often occur. The mortality rate is exceptionally high, because many prisoners die ofstarvation,illnesses,work accidents, or torture while working in thefieldsofagricultural farmingas peasants. Prisoners who stood up by foraging for extra food to feed their starving families could either face execution or severe beatings, as foraging or hunting for extra food is a capital offense.
During the height of theNorth Korean famine, the government's response was to set up many low-level labor camps for those who were caught crossing the North Korean-Chinese border or were repatriated from China. These labor training facilities were also used in response to the black market activity that resulted in people searching for food throughout the countryside.
In 2004, these “labor training” facilities were made a regular form of punishment under the new reforms of the criminal code which included a list of economic and social crimes. This list was increased in 2007 with the corresponding punishments growing.
TheDPRKgovernment denies all allegations ofhuman rightsviolations in prison camps, claiming that this is prohibited by criminal procedure law,but former prisoners testify that there are completely different rules in the prison camps.The DPRK government has released no information on inmates or prison camps and has not allowed access to any human rights organizations.According to a North Korean defector, North Korea considered inviting a delegation of the UN Commission on Human Rights to visit theYodok prison campin 1996.
Lee Soon-okgave detailed testimony on her treatment in the North Korean prison system to theUnited States Senate Committee on the Judiciaryin 2002. In her statement she said, "I testify that most of the 6,000 prisoners who were there when I arrived in 1987 had quietly perished under the harsh prison conditions by the time I was released in 1992."Many other former inmates, includingKang Chol-hwanandShin Dong-hyuk, gave detailed and consistent testimonies on the human rights crimes in North Korean prison camps. Both in prisons andre-education campshave series of cruel methods such as mass executions, abuse, torture, malnutrition and disease were rampant in isolated North Korean society.
According to the testimony of former camp guard Ahn Myong-chol ofCamp 22, the guards are trained to treat the detainees assubhumans. He gave an account of children in one camp who were fighting over corn retrieved from cow dung.
North Korean prison camps are of two types: large internment camps for political prisoners (Kwan-li-soin Korean) and reeducation prison camps (Kyo-hwa-so in Korean), as North Korean prisons and re-education camp systems are very strict, food was control and hunger a weapon for re-education, many peasants were ordered to work onagricultural collective farms, the North Korean people are forced to become a peasant were resettled in newly created villages, which lacked food, agricultural implements, and medical care. Life in 'North Korea' was very strict and brutal, with violence and intimidation became widespread in the camps, which branded "North Koreans with American and South Korean minds". In many areas of prisons in the country people were rounded up and executed for scavenging for food, sex outside marriage, giving birth to newborn babies including having children and helding their beliefs that could lead them to oppose prison guards, that was used byforced laborregime, starvation,forced resettlement, land collectivization, andstate terrorto keep every prisoners in line withself-sufficiencyand one of the strictest regulations prohibiting anything by having close friends or falling in love.
The internment camps for people who are accused of political offences and people who are accused of being politically unreliable are run by theState Security Department(North Korea's Thought Police).
Reports by refugees also indicate that all religious activities are considered illegal; offenders are frequently arrested and sent to political prison camps. Refugees reported that the people of North Korea were subjected to arrests and disappearances for owningBibles.
The North Korean city dwellers or the city people were historically subjected to the family responsibility principle, in which the immediate family members of convicted political criminals were also regarded as political criminals and interned. However, in 1994 the family responsibility principle was limited to cases of especially hideous crimes such as writing anti-government graffiti, which represented a substantial improvement by North Korean standards.
It has been estimated that a quarter of its population, with millions of people are still political prisoners, one-third of them are children, and they are routinely forced to performslave labor,tortured, andraped. According to satellite imagery and the testimonies of defectors, including testimonies by former prison guards, these human rights violations continue unabated.
According to former guards who have defected from North Korea, in the event of the Kim Family Regime's collapse or in the event of another crisis in North Korea, they were ordered to kill all political prisoners. The immediate murder of approximately 120,000 North Korean political prisoners would constitute agenocide.
The internment camps are located in central and northeastern North Korea. They consist of many prison labour colonies in secluded mountain valleys, completely isolated from the outside world and cut off from the society. The total number of prisoners who are incarcerated in the camps is estimated to range from 80,000to 200,000.Yodok campandPukchang campare separated into two sections: One section for political prisoners who are in lifelong detention, another section which is similar to re-education camps, where every North Korean are sentenced to long-term imprisonment which ranges from 5 to 20 years.
The prisoners of all ages including the sick and the elderly are forced to perform hard and dangerous slave work with primitive means in mining andagriculture. The food rations are very small, causing the North Korean people to constantly be on the brink of starvation. Along with the hard work, the small food rations cause a huge number of the prisoners to die including men, women, children and babies. It is estimated that 40% of the prisoners die frommalnutrition, because the prisoners are not allowed to own anything such as the contraband, cooking equipment or cooking pot, they are also forbidden to forage for food in either in or outside work camps because of many restrictions in prisons and labor camps were placed on local foods, from eating to farming. North Korean prisoners thought that eating at home was considered treacherous as cooking their own food was illegal as the consequences of being caught by guards were serious, even fatal.
Moreover, many North Koreans are crippled from work accidents, frostbite, torture, starvation or executions. Additionally, a rigid punishment regimen exists in the camps. Prisoners who work too slowly and prisoners who do not obey orders are beaten or tortured. Many prisoners are forbidden to grow their own food while being forced to work in the fields were taken by the guards such as eating nonpreferred foods, eating nonfoods and taking food secretly are extremely risky because those who were caught were killed by the North Korean guards. Conditions worsened over time.In cases when one prisoner is accused of stealing food or attempting to escape, the other prisoners are publicly executed which forced the population into slavery on communal farms that experienced widespread famine with many as two or eight million people died from starvation, disease, and exhaustion by agrarian reform policies in every aspect of prisons and re-education camps.
Initially, there were around twelve political prison camps, but some of them were merged or closed (e.g.Onsong prison camp, Kwan-li-so No. 12, following a suppressed riot with around 5,000 dead people in 1987). Today there are six political prison camps in North Korea, with the size determined from satellite images. North Korean prisoners and their families including children are forced to eat thin, gruel-like porridge that wasn't enough to survive and millions of people faced starvation in the camps, even the village co-operatives which became a network ofexecutionsand unendingpurges.and the number of prisoners estimated by former prisoners andNGOs.Most of the camps are documented in testimonies of former prisoners and, for all of them, coordinates and satellite images are available.
During the height of thefaminein the mid to late 1990s, thousands of North Koreans crossed theborderintoChinain search of food or jobs to support their families back home. The Chinese government, fearful of the North Korean government's response, repatriated the North Korean refugees back to their country. The North Korean border police often tortured North Koreans who were forcibly repatriated, but at the time, the government stated that the repatriated citizens would be treated fairly. If it was determined that those who fled to China had any contact with South Koreans or Protestant Christian organizations, they were sent to labor colonies or gyohwaso (felony-level penitentiaries).
The South Korean journalistKang Chol-hwanis a former prisoner ofYodok Political Prison Campand has written a book,The Aquariums of Pyongyang, about his time in the camp.The South Korean human rights activistShin Dong-hyukis the only person known to have escaped fromKaechon Political Prison Camp. He gave an account of his time in the camp.
The reeducation camps for criminals are run by theMinistry of Social Security. There is a fluent passage between common crimes and political crimes, as people who get on the bad side of influential party members are often denounced on false accusations. They are then forced into false confessions with brutal torture in detention centers (Lee Soon-ok for example had to kneel down whilst being showered with water at icy temperatures with other prisoners, of whom six did not survive) and are then condemned in a brief show trial to a long-term prison sentence.
In North Korea, political crimes are greatly varied, from border crossing to any disturbance of the political order, and they are rigorously punished.Due to the dire prison conditions with hunger and torture,a large percentage of prisoners do not survive their sentence terms.
One account of a North Korean refugee recalls being kicked repeatedly in the stomach by her North Korean guard in an attempt to abort her 5-month-old unborn baby. After losing consciousness during the beatings, she awoke inside the camp's clinic where her baby was forcibly removed.
The reeducation camps are large prison building complexes surrounded by high walls. The situation of prisoners is quite similar to that in the political prison camps. They have to perform slave labour in prison factories and in case they do not meet the work quotas, they are tortured and (at least inKaechon camp) confined for many days in special prison cells, which are too small for them to stand up or lie full-length in.
To be distinguished from the internment camps for political prisoners, the reeducation camp prisoners are forced to undergo ideological instruction after work and they are also forced to memorize the speeches ofKim Il SungandKim Jong Iland they even have to undergo self-criticism rites. Many prisoners are guilty of common crimes which are also penalized in other countries e. g. illegal border crossing, stealing food or illegal trading.
There are around 15 to 25 reeducation camps in North Korea.
Kyo-hwa-so Sunghoriwas closed in 1991 but was later reopened at a new location on an unknown date.
The South Korean human rights activistLee Soon-okhas written a book (Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman) about her time in the camp and testified before theUS Senate.
TIME magazine article,Running out of Darkness, reports on the efforts of Kim Myong-suk to escape a North Korean prison with the help of a South Korean-based charity, Helping Hands Korea.
In December 2016, theSouth China Morning Postreported on the existence of a secret prison in Hyanghari, which is euphemistically known as a 'resort,' where members of the country's political elite are imprisoned.