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A Glimpse into the Conditions of North Korean Prison Camps

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Prison camps and “reeducation camps” began opening in North Korea in 1959 under the leadership of Kim Il Sung, the founder of North Korea. Officially, it is the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, founded after Korea was divided when the Japanese occupation ended in 1945.

Former inmates and prison guards have testified that there are no blankets in most camps, there is about 1 toilet for every 200 people, children and adults alike are forced to perform heavy labor, there is inadequate or no access to sanitation or medicine, and public executions by shooting or hanging are routine. They are beaten, tortured in unspeakable ways, raped, forced into labor, and killed by the guards, all while they are starving and surviving on a limited amount of food. There are two zones of prison camps, the Total Control Zone where nobody is ever released, and the Revolutionary Zone where people can be released.

Only three known inmates have escaped from the Total Control Zone camps and made it into another country for sanctuary. The book Escape From Camp 14, one of the most horrific and notorious in the network, written by Blaine Harden tells of horrors within from Shin Dong-hyuk’s experience. Dong-hyuk was born in the prison system and escaped in his early 20s, his story is incredibly painful, but he still gives talks around the world to raise awareness to the suffering.

Other books like Nothing to Envy by Barbara Demick, The Aquariums of Pyongyang by Pierre Rigoulot and Kang Chol-hwan, and Long Road Home by Kim Suk-Young and Kim Yong all peel back the curtain into North Korea’s prison camps. Each book is highly recommended.

People are sent to prison camps for a number of offenses including but not limited to: criticizing the government, contacting people in other countries, being a part of (or being suspected to be part of) anti-government groups, petty crimes like theft, and anybody caught escaping the country. The prison camps are still in operation today, despite the international community knowing about the conditions inside.

An unknown number of people have gone through this vast network of camps with deplorable conditions. It is estimated that 40% of prisoners die of malnutrition and starvation in these camps, with more who die by the hands of the guards. And an estimated 200,000 prisoners were in these camps as of 2019.

These camps are intended to bring about the physical and mental destruction of the prisoners, some of whom were born into the prison camp. Which, according to the United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948, should be considered a genocide by definition.

North Korea adopted communism, though they did not practice Marxism even by the USSR’s standards, but they implemented the same practices such as collectivization and state-owned property. In the 1980s there was a purge of politicians and over 100,000 people were given a prison sentence in the network of camps. Political purges and labor camps in communist countries are not unique to North Korea.

People were sent to prison for petty crimes, such as stealing bread when a poor family could not feed their children. If they were caught for it, the thief and sometimes the whole family would be sent to a prison camp for that crime. There are reports from people who escaped these camps that the guards would sometimes arrange marriages with inmates and pressure them to have children, and those children would be born into the prison system and carry out their father, or grandfather’s, sentence. 

Many were imprisoned, fined, or otherwise punished with beatings or death because of theft, especially doing the famine which killed hundreds of thousands, or even millions of people. The true number of deaths during the North Korean famines is difficult to determine because the government has not acknowledged the famine and underreports the death tolls. Independent researchers have determined that anywhere from 6,000,000 to 3.5 million people had a famine-related death in total.

The great North Korean famine of 1994-1998 hit due to their poor economic system, natural disasters, international sanctions, and the collapse of the USSR. Everybody, not just those in the prison system, was affected by this famine. The famine was partially preventable.

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