North Korean Gulag Still There (no surprise here)

Satellite images suggest that contrary to reports that Pyongyang had shut down its largest labour prison in June, Camp 22 is still serving as a penal gulag for thousands of inmates.

According to the Telegraph satellite images collected by the Washington-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea earlier this month indicates the camp continues to function, it said in a report.

"Harvesting of crops continues, as does coal production, making it not yet clear that the camp has closed and that North Korean authorities have been slowly transferring small sections of prisoners out of Camp 22 and replacing them with a regular workforce from other locations," the group said in a statement.

The camp is in fact a collection of interconnected detention facilities covering 87 square miles and surrounded by an electric fence. Former guards who have escaped from North Korea say the camp has 1,000 guards armed with machine guns.No inmate, most of whom are serving life sentences for political crimes, religious beliefs or are purged senior party members, has been known to escape from North Korea.

As many as 50,000 inmates are held at the camp, producing furniture or labouring in coal mines or the fields. In total, some 100,000 people are believed to be held in North Korean labour camps.
Defectors have recounted numerous forms of torture at Camp 22, as well as claiming that medical and weapons experiments were carried out on inmates, including children.

HRNK is calling on the International Committee of the Red Cross and the World Food Programme to be given immediate access to the North Korean gulag system and is requesting the creation of an international commission of inquiry to look into breaches of human rights in the North. 

 

Hmm (again) I wonder why anyone thought that North Korea would be shutting its camps. I can't imagine that that Kim youn'un will be changing much aboith his insane littlefiefdom any time soon if at all. After all he is king of the dung heap.