- Chongori concentration camp
-
Reeducation facility no. 12 Chosŏn'gŭl 제12호 교화소 Hancha 第十二號敎化所 McCune–Reischauer che-12[sibi]-ho kyohwaso Revised Romanization je-12(sibi)-ho gyohwaso Chongori concentration camp is a reeducation camp in North Korea.
Contents
Location
The camp is located near Chongori (Chosŏn'gŭl: 전거리; MR: Chŏn’gŏri; RR: Jeongeori, also spelled Jongori), a little village in Musan-ri, Hoeryong county, at the road and railroad (about 2½ km northeast of Chongori station)[1] almost halfway between Hoeryong and Chongjin, Hamgyŏng-pukto province in North Korea. Chongori camp is situated at the end of a small valley 2.5 km (1.5 mi) southeast from the main valley in Pungsan-ri and Chongori.[2]
Description
Chongori concentration camp is a large prison compound, around 350 m (1050 feet) long and 150 m (450 feet) wide. The main section is surrounded by an 8 m (26 feet) 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 usual criminals, but often with high penalties for desperate offences, e. g. stealing food. They are guarded by around 300 prison guards with machine guns.[3] From 2006 on the number of prisoners increased very much,[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 as the prison sentences are very long and the conditions are very harsh, many do not survive their prison sentences.
Purpose
Main purpose of Chongori camp is to punish people for usual crimes or political crimes, e. g. illegal border crossing. But the prisoners are also used as slave workers, who have to do hard and dangerous work 14 hours a day.[6] There is a copper ore mine, a logging section and some smaller factories in the camp.[7]
Human Rights Situation
The prisoners have to live in crowded, dirty, insect-infested rooms without heating, while there is just one washing room for 1000 prisoners.[8] Because of this horrible hygienic situation often loads of prisoners die from infectious diseases (e. g. 190 prisoners died in summer 2003).[9]
The prisoners get only 140 grams of rice three times a day, while being forced to do hard slave labor, e. g. logging with iron chains.[10] Often prisoners are killed [11] or crippled in work accidents, as they have to do dangerous work with primitive means.[12] Prisoners are so hungry, that they eat even grass and corn in cow feces.[13] Lee Jun Ha estimates that are around 30 – 40 people died from malnutrition, work accidents or torture each month and were burnt on a nearby mountain.[14]
The prisoners are regularly subject to beatings, torture and inhuman treatment, arbitrarily at the guard’s mercy.[15] In case a prisoner breaks a rule he is tortured and confined many days or weeks in a solitary cell, only 1 m² (3 feet square) large, where he could not stretch his legs.[16] Summary executions were carried out several times per year in case of escape attempts.[17]
Prisoners (Witnesses)
Lee Jun Ha (2000–2005 in Chongori) was imprisoned, because he accidentally killed his uncle.[18]
See also
External links
- Daily NK: Prison Tales – Prison memoir series by Lee Jun Ha
- One Free Korea: Camp 12 - Chongori camp with satellite photographs
- Korea Institute for National Unification - White paper on human rights in North Korea 2009 (page 179 and 443)
- Chosun Ilbo: N. Korea in brutal crackdown on defectors – Many defectors arrested and deported to Chongori camp
- Committee for Human Rights in North Korea – Overview on other North Korean Prison Camps with Testimonies and Satellite Photographs
References
- ^ "회령 전거리 수용소". http://www.angelhalowiki.com/r1/wiki.php/%ED%9A%8C%EB%A0%B9%20%EC%A0%84%EA%B1%B0%EB%A6%AC%20%EC%88%98%EC%9A%A9%EC%86%8C?action=recall&rev=1.1.
- ^ One Free Korea: Camp 12 – Chongori camp with satellite photographs
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 8 “What Does the No.12 Reeducation Camp Look Like?”
- ^ KINU White paper on human rights in North Korea 2009 (Chapter G. Human Rights Violations Inside Political Concentration Camps (Kwanliso), page 101)
- ^ Chosun Ilbo: “N. Korea in brutal crackdown on defectors”, Chosun Ilbo, September 1, 2009
- ^ Chosun Ilbo: “N. Korea in brutal crackdown on defectors”, Chosun Ilbo, September 1, 2009
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 8 “What Does the No.12 Reeducation Camp Look Like?”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 9 “No. 12 Prison, My Home for a While”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 31 “Infectious Disease Sweeps the Prison”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 19 “Logging on the Mountain”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 26 “Fighting Frozen Weather on the Mountain”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 18 “The Wagon of Spite”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 13 “A Cruel Realization about the Nature of Man”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 25 “Mount Bulmang's Tragic Harvest”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 6 “Beatings, Rape, Torture, Atrocities Every Day”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 21 “Twenty Days in Solitary”
- ^ The Daily NK: Lee Jun Ha’s Prison Tales 24 “Summary Execution of a Runaway from the Camp”
- ^ 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
Categories:- Concentration camps in North Korea
- Human rights in North Korea
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
