New satellite images released in an Amnesty International report on
Thursday (December 5) show the vast scale of North Korea’s repressive
political prison camps and the ongoing development of two of the sites
in the remote north of the country, the organization says.
Detailed images from Kwanliso 16, near Hwaseong and Kwanliso 15, in Yodok show new housing blocks and guard posts. Close examination of the images shows an increase in logging and manufacturing, implying the use of forced labor, Amnesty says.
“Prison camps in North Korea are a part, a vital part, of this vast infrastructure of repression that the North Korean government has maintained to maintain its control over its population. As far as we know, there are four political prison camps in remote areas, they are vast. For instance our satellite images show the largest prison camp is about 560 square kilometers,” said Rajiv Narayan, East Asia Researcher at Amnesty International.
Along with the satellite pictures, the report also details newly-released testimony from a former security guard at Kwanliso 16, the largest political prison camp in North Korea who has never spoken publicly before.
“The purpose of prison camps is to oppress, degrade, and violate the inmates for as long as they are alive,” he told Amnesty in a video-taped interview. Amnesty gave his name solely as Mr Lee and obscured his identity during the interview to protect his safety.
Hundreds and thousands of people, including children, are detained in political prison camps in North Korea.
One of them was Kim Young-soon who was detained in Kwanliso 15 at Yodok between 1980 and 1989. She was a dancer in Pyongyang and part of the elite, performing for then ruler Kim Jong-il. When she told her family that her friend was having an affair with Kim she found herself and all her immediate family detained for gossiping. She lost her parents and young son in detention and has not seen her husband since she first entered the camp.
“Upon arriving in Yodok, it felt like the sky was collapsing. I couldn’t understand how this could happen to me. How can I be taken to such a deplorable place? It was heartbreaking,” she told Amnesty.
Amnesty estimates there are currently 20,000 inmates in Yodok and 50,000 in Kwanliso 16. But it has no real way of confirming numbers nor how many people are in two other camps.
Conditions are brutal with prisoners forced to work to the point of exhaustion. Detainees were often forced to dig their own graves before being killed with hammer blows to their necks or being beaten to death with wooden sticks, according to Kim Young-soon, who now lives in Seoul, South Korea.
“There were two prisoners who were caught trying to escape and
were publicly executed. In a public execution, the prisoner is first beaten half to death. He is tied to a pole up on a platform, with his hands tied behind his back. His feet are also tied, another rope is tied around his waist, and he is blindfolded. Then one guard shouts to the firing squad, “In the name of the people, shoot the enemy of the revolution!” They shoot three shots to the head, three shots to the chest, and three to the legs. By then, the head drops and the body is dragged away. The people watching are expressionless. They don’t mourn or cry. Without a trace of emotion on their faces, they stand and watch and then disperse,” she told Amnesty.
North Korea’s official line on the political prison camps is that they don’t exist.
Former prison guard Mr Lee, who was a prison guard between 1980 and 1989 said he believes the situation is likely to be much worse rather than better than when he was working in Yodok camp.
“Nothing’s changed where human rights are concerned,” he said.
Kwanliso 16, the biggest camp, is 560 square meters, three times the size of Washington DC. Kwanliso 15 or Yodok camp is 370 square meters. Amnesty said that while 39 housing blocks at Yodok have been demolished since 2011, 6 more have been built.
Amnesty has shared its latest evidence with the UN Commission of Inquiry investigating human rights abuses in North Korea which is due to report in the spring of 2014.
Detailed images from Kwanliso 16, near Hwaseong and Kwanliso 15, in Yodok show new housing blocks and guard posts. Close examination of the images shows an increase in logging and manufacturing, implying the use of forced labor, Amnesty says.
“Prison camps in North Korea are a part, a vital part, of this vast infrastructure of repression that the North Korean government has maintained to maintain its control over its population. As far as we know, there are four political prison camps in remote areas, they are vast. For instance our satellite images show the largest prison camp is about 560 square kilometers,” said Rajiv Narayan, East Asia Researcher at Amnesty International.
Along with the satellite pictures, the report also details newly-released testimony from a former security guard at Kwanliso 16, the largest political prison camp in North Korea who has never spoken publicly before.
“The purpose of prison camps is to oppress, degrade, and violate the inmates for as long as they are alive,” he told Amnesty in a video-taped interview. Amnesty gave his name solely as Mr Lee and obscured his identity during the interview to protect his safety.
Hundreds and thousands of people, including children, are detained in political prison camps in North Korea.
One of them was Kim Young-soon who was detained in Kwanliso 15 at Yodok between 1980 and 1989. She was a dancer in Pyongyang and part of the elite, performing for then ruler Kim Jong-il. When she told her family that her friend was having an affair with Kim she found herself and all her immediate family detained for gossiping. She lost her parents and young son in detention and has not seen her husband since she first entered the camp.
“Upon arriving in Yodok, it felt like the sky was collapsing. I couldn’t understand how this could happen to me. How can I be taken to such a deplorable place? It was heartbreaking,” she told Amnesty.
Amnesty estimates there are currently 20,000 inmates in Yodok and 50,000 in Kwanliso 16. But it has no real way of confirming numbers nor how many people are in two other camps.
Conditions are brutal with prisoners forced to work to the point of exhaustion. Detainees were often forced to dig their own graves before being killed with hammer blows to their necks or being beaten to death with wooden sticks, according to Kim Young-soon, who now lives in Seoul, South Korea.
“There were two prisoners who were caught trying to escape and
were publicly executed. In a public execution, the prisoner is first beaten half to death. He is tied to a pole up on a platform, with his hands tied behind his back. His feet are also tied, another rope is tied around his waist, and he is blindfolded. Then one guard shouts to the firing squad, “In the name of the people, shoot the enemy of the revolution!” They shoot three shots to the head, three shots to the chest, and three to the legs. By then, the head drops and the body is dragged away. The people watching are expressionless. They don’t mourn or cry. Without a trace of emotion on their faces, they stand and watch and then disperse,” she told Amnesty.
North Korea’s official line on the political prison camps is that they don’t exist.
Former prison guard Mr Lee, who was a prison guard between 1980 and 1989 said he believes the situation is likely to be much worse rather than better than when he was working in Yodok camp.
“Nothing’s changed where human rights are concerned,” he said.
Kwanliso 16, the biggest camp, is 560 square meters, three times the size of Washington DC. Kwanliso 15 or Yodok camp is 370 square meters. Amnesty said that while 39 housing blocks at Yodok have been demolished since 2011, 6 more have been built.
Amnesty has shared its latest evidence with the UN Commission of Inquiry investigating human rights abuses in North Korea which is due to report in the spring of 2014.
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