Chongori concentration camp

Chongori concentration camp
Chosŏn'gŭl 전거리 제12호 교화소
Hancha 轉車里第十二號敎化所
Revised Romanization Jeon'geori Je12ho Gyohwaso
McCune–Reischauer Chŏn'gŏri Che12ho Kyohwaso
Chosŏn'gŭl 전거리 정치범 수용소
Hancha 轉車里政治犯收容所
Revised Romanization Jeon'geori Jeongchibeom Suyongso
McCune–Reischauer Chŏn'gŏri Chŏngch'ibŏm Suyongso

Chongori concentration camp (also spelled Jungeori, Jongori or Jeonger-ri) is a reeducation camp in North Korea. The official name of the camp is Kyo-hwa-so No. 12 (Reeducation camp no. 12).

Location

The camp is located near Chongori, a little village in Musan-ri (Chosŏn'gŭl: 무산리; RR: Musanri; MR: Musanri), Hoeryong county, at the road and railroad almost halfway between Hoeryong and Chongjin, North Hamgyong province in North Korea.[1] Chongori camp is situated at the end of a small valley 2.5 km (1.6 mi) southeast from the main valley in Pungsan-ri (Chosŏn'gŭl: 풍산리; RR: Pungsanri; MR: P'ungsanri) and Chongori.[2]

Chongori
Pyongyang
Location of Chongori camp in North Korea

Description

Chongori concentration camp is a large prison compound, around 350 m (1,150 ft) long and 150 m (490 ft) wide. The main section is surrounded by a 8 m (26 ft) high wall, while the branch offices are surrounded with barbed wire and an electrified fence. In 2005 there used to be around 2000 prisoners, mostly non-political criminals, but often sentenced there for desperate offences such as stealing food. They are guarded by around 300 prison guards with machine guns.[3] From 2006 on the number of prisoners increased significantly,[4] as many defectors deported from China were arrested in Chongori camp.[5] Theoretically, prisoners should be released after reeducation through labor and serving their sentence, but since the prison sentences are very long and the conditions are very harsh, many do not survive their prison sentences. A former prisoner estimates, that during his eight months of detention, around 800 prisoners died from hard labor and sub-subsistence level food rations.[6]

Purpose

The main purpose of Chongori camp is to punish people for usual crimes or political crimes such as illegal border crossing. The prisoners are also used as slave workers, who have to do hard and dangerous work 14 hours a day.[5] There is a copper ore mine, a logging section,[3] a furniture factory and a farming section in the camp.[7]

Human rights situation

The prisoners in Chongori concentration camp live in crowded, dirty, insect-infested rooms without heating, while there is just one washing room for 1000 prisoners.[8] Because of these bad hygienic conditions, in the summer of 2003 around 190 prisoners died from an infectious disease according to Lee Jun Ha.[9] 70 prisoners sleep in a room made for 20, lying on the floor without pillows or blankets.[10]

Prisoners get only 140 grams of rice three times a day, while being forced to do hard labor such as logging with iron chains.[11] Often prisoners are killed [12] or crippled in work accidents, as they have to do dangerous work with primitive means.[13] A former prisoner reported of accidental deaths every few days in the furniture factory due to antiquated machines and prisoners seldom getting more than five hours of sleep per night.[14] Virtually every day after work and before getting dinner, prisoners have to engage in mutual criticism sessions[14] and get less food in case of flaws or shortcomings.[15] Prisoners are so hungry, that they eat even grass and corn in cow feces.[16] Lee Jun Ha estimates that around 30 to 40 people died from malnutrition, work accidents or torture each month and were burnt on a nearby mountain.[17]

Prisoners are regularly subject to beatings,[18] torture and inhuman treatment, arbitrarily at the guards' mercy.[19] In case a prisoner breaks a rule, he is tortured and confined many days or weeks in a solitary cell, only 1 square metre (11 sq ft) in area, where he could not stretch his legs.[20] As additional punishment, they get only  1⁄3 of the usual food rations.[21] Summary executions were carried out several times per year in case of escape attempts.[22]

Kwon Hyo-jin has painted the various forms of torture he witnessed, such as “pigeon torture”, “crane torture”, “airplane torture”, and “knee joint torture”, in a series of drawings.[23] Other human rights violations and forced labor in Chongori camp are featured in further drawings for an exhibition on political prison camps in North Korea.

Prisoners (Witnesses)

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Hidden Gulag – Satellite imagery (p. 227)" (PDF). The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  2. ↑ One Free Korea: Camp 12 – Chongori camp with satellite photographs
  3. 1 2 The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 8 “What Does the No.12 Reeducation Camp Look Like?”
  4. ↑ KINU White paper on human rights in North Korea 2009 (Chapter G. Human Rights Violations Inside Political Concentration Camps (Kwanliso), page 101)
  5. 1 2 Chosun Ilbo: “N. Korea in brutal crackdown on defectors”, Chosun Ilbo, September 1, 2009
  6. ↑ "The Hidden Gulag – Exposing Crimes against Humanity in North Korea's Vast Prison System (p. 88)" (PDF). The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  7. ↑ "Prisoners in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, July 15, 2011, retrieved May 30, 2012 |chapter= ignored (help)
  8. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 9 “No. 12 Prison, My Home for a While”
  9. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 31 “Infectious Disease Sweeps the Prison”
  10. ↑ "Prisoners in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, July 15, 2011, retrieved May 30, 2012 |chapter= ignored (help)
  11. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 19 “Logging on the Mountain”
  12. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 26 “Fighting Frozen Weather on the Mountain”
  13. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 18 “The Wagon of Spite”
  14. 1 2 "The Hidden Gulag – Exposing Crimes against Humanity in North Korea's Vast Prison System (p. 86)" (PDF). The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  15. ↑ "Prisoners in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, July 15, 2011, retrieved May 30, 2012 |chapter= ignored (help)
  16. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 13 “A Cruel Realization about the Nature of Man”
  17. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 25 “Mount Bulmang's Tragic Harvest”
  18. ↑ "Prisoners in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, July 15, 2011, retrieved May 30, 2012 |chapter= ignored (help)
  19. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 6 “Beatings, Rape, Torture, Atrocities Every Day”
  20. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 21 “Twenty Days in Solitary”
  21. ↑ "Prisoners in North Korea Today" (PDF), Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, July 15, 2011, retrieved May 30, 2012 |chapter= ignored (help)
  22. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 24 “Summary Execution of a Runaway from the Camp”
  23. 1 2 "Where love does not exist: Chongori prison changing into an exclusive camp for punishment of North Korean defectors". Sage Korea. Retrieved May 25, 2012.
  24. ↑ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 2 “Seven Years for Murdering my Alcoholic Uncle”

Coordinates: 42°12′36″N 129°45′13″E / 42.209925°N 129.753658°E / 42.209925; 129.753658

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 3/13/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.