Hoeryong concentration camp

Template:Short description Template:Infobox Korean name Template:Human Rights in North Korea Hoeryong concentration camp (Haengyong concentration camp or Camp 22) was a concentration and death camp in North Korea that was reported to have been closed in 2012.<ref name="dailynk0912" /> The official name was Kwalliso (penal labour colony) No. 22. The camp was a maximum security area, completely isolated from the outside world.<ref name="nkdb">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Template:Rp

In 2012, satellite image analysis<ref name="hrnk1212">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and reports<ref name="rfa1112">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> indicated major changes including its reported closure.<ref name="dailynk0912">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Location

Template:Location map+ Camp 22 was located in Hoeryong County, North Hamgyong province, in northeast North Korea, near the border with China. It was situated in a large valley with many side valleys, surrounded by Template:Convert high mountains. The southwest gate of the camp was located around Template:Convert northeast of downtown Hoeryong, while the main gate was located around Template:Convert southeast of Kaishantun in China's Jilin province. The western boundary of the camp runs parallel to, and at a distance of Template:Convert from, the Tumen River, which forms the border with China.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The camp was not included in maps until recently<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and the North Korean government has always denied its existence.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

History

The camp was founded around 1965 by Kim Il Sung and his son Kim Jong Il in Haengyong-ri and expanded into the areas of Chungbong-ri and Sawul-ri in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp The number of prisoners increased sharply in the 1990s when three other prison camps in North Hamgyong province were closed and the prisoners were transferred to Camp 22. Kwan-li-so No. 11 (Kyongsong) was closed in 1989, Kwan-li-so No. 12 (Onsong) was closed in 1992 and Kwan-li-so No. 13 (Changpyong) in 1992.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp

Description

Camp 22 was around Template:Convert in area.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It was surrounded by an inner 3300 volt electric fence and an outer barbed wire fence, with traps and hidden nails between the two fences.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp The camp was controlled by roughly 1,000 guards and 500–600 administrative agents.<ref name = "hrnk">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The guards were equipped with automatic rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, clubs, whips, and trained dogs.<ref name="Chosun">Template:Cite news</ref>

In the 1990s, there were an estimated 50,000 prisoners in the camp.<ref name="ai">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Prisoners were mostly people who criticized the government,<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp people deemed politically unreliable (such as South Korean prisoners of war, Christians, returnees from Japan)<ref name="Keys2001winter">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or purged senior party members.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp Based on the guilt-by-association principle (Template:Korean) they are often imprisoned together with the whole family including children and the elderly, and including any children born in the camp.<ref name = "hrnk"/> All prisoners were detained until they died; they were never released.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp

The camp was divided into several prison labour colonies:<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp

• Haengyong-ri was the camp headquarters with administration offices, a food factory, a garment factory, detention center, guards' quarters, and prisoner family quarters.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Chungbong-ri was a mining section with a coal mine, loading depot, railway station, hospital, guards' quarters, and single prisoners' quarters.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref>

• Naksaeng-ri, Sawul-ri, Kulsan-ri, and Namsok-ri were farming sections with prisoner family quarters.

There was an execution site in Sugol Valley, at the edge of the camp.<ref name = "hrnk"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Conditions in the camp

Former guard Ahn Myong-chol describes the conditions in the camp as harsh and life-threatening.<ref name="mcho">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> He recalls the shock he felt upon his first arrival at the camp, where he likened the prisoners to walking skeletons, dwarfs, and cripples in rags.<ref name = "hrnk"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ahn estimates that about 30% of the prisoners had deformities, such as torn off ears, smashed eyes, crooked noses, and faces covered with cuts and scars resulting from beatings and other mistreatment. Around 2,000 prisoners, he says, had missing limbs, but even prisoners who needed crutches to walk were still forced to work.<ref name="mcho2000">Template:Citation</ref>

Prisoners received Template:Convert of corn per meal (two times a day), with almost no vegetables and no meat.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp The only meat in their diets was from rats, snakes, frogs, or even insects that they caught.<ref name = "hrnk"/><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Ahn estimated that 1,500–2,000 people died of malnutrition there every year, mostly children.<ref name="ai"/> Despite these deaths, the inmate population remained constant, suggesting that similar numbers of new inmates arrived each year.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Children received only very basic education.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp From the age of 6 onward they were assigned work, such as picking vegetables, peeling corn, or drying rice, but received very little food — only Template:Convert in all per day. Consequently, many children died before the age of ten years.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp Elderly prisoners had the same work requirements as other adults.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp Seriously ill prisoners were quarantined, abandoned, and left to die.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Single prisoners lived in bunkhouses with 100 people in one room. As a reward for good work, families were often allowed to live together in a single room inside a small house, without running water.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp Houses were in poor condition; walls were made from mud and typically had many cracks.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> All prisoners were allowed access only to dirty and crowded communal toilets.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Prisoners had to do hard physical labor in agriculture, mining, and inside factories from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. in winter),<ref name="Chosun"/> followed by ideological re-education and self-criticism sessions.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp New Year's Day was the only holiday for prisoners.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp The mines were not equipped with safety measures and, according to Ahn, prisoners were consequently killed almost every day. Prisoners could use only primitive tools such as shovels and picks and were forced to work to exhaustion.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp If a fire occurred or a tunnel collapsed, prisoners were simply abandoned inside and left to die.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Kwon Hyuk, a former security officer in Camp 22, reported that corpses were loaded into cargo coaches together with the coal, to be burnt in a melting furnace.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp The coal was delivered to the Chongjin power plant as well as to Chongjin and Kimchaek steel mills,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> while the food was delivered to the State Security Agency or sold in Pyongyang and other parts of the country.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp

Human rights violations

Ahn explained how the camp guards are taught that prisoners are factionalists and class enemies that have to be destroyed like weeds down to their roots.<ref name = "hrnk"/> They are instructed to regard the prisoners as slaves<ref name="mcho2000"/> and not treat them as human beings.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp Based on this, the guards may at any time kill any prisoner who does not obey their orders.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> Kwon reported that as a security officer he could decide whether or not to kill a prisoner if they violated a rule.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp He admitted that once he ordered the execution of 31 people from five families in a collective punishment,<ref name = "bbc">Template:Cite news</ref> because one member of a family tried to escape.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp<ref name = "telegraph">Template:Cite news</ref>

In the 1980s, public executions took place approximately once a week according to Kwon.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp Ahn reported that in the 1990s they were replaced by secret executions, as the security guards feared riots from the assembled crowd.<ref>Template:Citation</ref> Kwon was required to visit the secret execution site<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp a number of times; there, he saw disfigured and crushed bodies.<ref>Template:Citation</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In case of serious violations of camp rules, the prisoners are subjected to a process of investigation, which produced human rights violations such as reduced meals, torture, beating, and sexual harassment.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp In addition, there is a detention center;<ref name = "hrnk"/> many prisoners die in detention<ref name="Keys2001spring">Template:Citation</ref> and even more leave the detention building crippled.<ref name = "nbc">Template:Cite news</ref>

Ahn and Kwon reported about the following torture methods used in Haengyong-ri:<ref name="mcho2000"/><ref name = "telegraph"/>

• Water torture: The prisoner must stand on his or her toes in a tank filled with water to his or her nose for 24 hours.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp
• Hanging torture: The prisoner is stripped and hung upside down from the ceiling to be violently beaten.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp
• Box room torture: The prisoner is detained in a very small solitary cell, in which there is barely enough room to sit, but not stand or lie, for three days or a week.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp
• Kneeling torture: The prisoner must kneel down with a wooden bar inserted near his or her knee hollows to stop blood circulation. After a week, the prisoner cannot walk and may likely die some months later.<ref name="mcho2000"/>
• Pigeon torture: The prisoner is tied to the wall with both hands at a height of Template:Convert and must crouch for many hours.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp

Prisoners are beaten every day,<ref name="nbc-fg">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> if, for example, they do not bow quickly or deeply enough before the guards,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> if they do not work hard enough,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> or do not obey quickly enough.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp It is a frequent practice for guards to use prisoners as martial arts targets.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Rape and sexual violence are very common in the camp,<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp as female prisoners know they may be easily killed if they resist the demands of the security officers.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Ahn reported about hundreds of prisoners each year being taken away for several “major construction projects”,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> such as secret tunnels, military bases, or nuclear facilities in remote areas.<ref name="mcho2000"/> None of these prisoners ever returned to the camp.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp Ahn is convinced that they were secretly killed after finishing the construction work to keep the secrecy of these projects.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp

Human experimentation

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Kwon reported about human experimentation carried out in Haengyong-ri.<ref name="nkdb"/>Template:Rp He described a sealed glass chamber, Template:Convert wide, Template:Convert long and Template:Convert high,<ref>Template:Citation</ref> where he witnessed a family with two children<ref name = "telegraph"/> dying from being test subjects for an asphyxiant gas.<ref name="Guardian">Template:Cite news</ref> Ahn explained how inexperienced medical officers of Chungbong-ri hospital practiced their surgery techniques on prisoners. He heard numerous accounts of unnecessary operations and medical flaws, killing or permanently crippling prisoners.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Reports on mass starvation and closure

Satellite images from late 2012 showed the detention centre and some of the guard towers being razed, but all other structures appeared operational.<ref name="hrnk1212"/> It was reported that 27,000 prisoners died of starvation within a short time and the surviving 3,000 prisoners were relocated to Hwasong concentration camp between March and June 2012.<ref name="rfa1112"/> It was further reported that the camp was shut down in June, security guards removed traces of detention facilities until August<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and then miners from Kungsim mine<ref name="rfa1112"/> and farmers from Saebyol and Undok were moved into the area.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> According to another report the authorities decided to close the camp to cover its tracks after a warden defected.<ref name="dailynk0912"/>

See also

• Kaechon internment camp
• Yodok concentration camp
• Kwalliso
• Prisons in North Korea
• Human rights in North Korea
• Extermination through labour

Further reading

• 안명철, 완전통제구역-북한 정치범수용소 경비대원의 수기, 시대정신 (서울, 2007-09-20), 287쪽, Template:ISBN Template:ISBN (Ahn Myong-chol, “Maximum Security Camp”, Zeitgeist, Seoul 2007, 287 p.)
• 안명철, 그들은 울고있다, 천지미디어(서울, 1995-08-01), 354쪽, Template:ISBN Template:ISBN (Ahn Myong-chol, “They are weeping”, Chonji Media, Seoul 1995, 354 p.)

External links

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Overview of North Korean prison camps with testimonies and satellite photographs

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Comprehensive analysis of various aspects of life in political prison camps

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Document on camp conditions (torture, executions, hunger, child labor, forced labor) in North Korean prison camps

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Analysis of the phenomena of repression associated with North Korea's political labor camps

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Report to emphasize the urgent need to mass killings, arbitrary imprisonment, torture and related international crimes

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Eye-witness accounts from North Korean prison camps

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Summary and Analysis of the North Korea Witness on the Crimes against Humanity in North Korea

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Satellite imagery and witness accounts of Camp 22

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – Annotated satellite imagery of Camp 22

• {{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }} – NBC News investigation uncovers horrific, extensive atrocities