Yodok concentration camp

Yodŏk (Korean 요덕, also romanized Yodeok or Yoduk) is a political concentration camp in North Korea. It is located in Yodŏk-gun (county) in South Hamgyong Province, at coord|39|36|42.59|N|126|50|56.85|E. The official name is Kwan-li-so (reeducation center) No. 15.

In the 1990s, an estimated 30,000 prisoners were in the lifetime area, and around 16,500 prisoners in the revolutionizing zone (many of them family members of prisoners and people repatriated from Japan).

Yodŏk camp has a lifetime-imprisonment "total-control zone", but also "revolutionizing zones", from which prisoners are sometimes released. That is why there are testimonies by refugees about Yodŏk.

The whole encampment is surrounded by a barbed-wire fence measuring 3 to 4 meters and walls 2 to 3 meters tall topped with electrical wire. Along the fence there are watchtowers, and patrolled by 1,000 guards armed with automatic rifles, hand grenades and guard dogs.

Labor operations at the Kuŭp-ri section of Yodŏk include a gypsum quarry and a re-opened gold mine, where some 800 men worked and accidents happen frequently. There were also textile plants, distilleries and a coppersmith workshop.

Kang Chol-Hwan, prisoner from 1977 to 1987, estimates around 4% of prisoners in the Kuŭp-ri revolutionizing zone died per year, mostly because of malnutrition and disease. Although complete families (including children) were imprisoned based on the claimed guilt of one member, any sexual contact was not allowed and pregnancies were forcibly aborted. Kang described life in Yodŏk camp in the book "The Aquariums of Pyongyang".

Lee Young-kuk [http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,201976,00.html] , prisoner from 1995 to 1999, estimates that around 20% of prisoners in the Taesuk-ri revolutionizing zone died per year, while new prisoners arrived each month. As cells were not heated, most prisoners suffered from frostbitten ears and swollen legs during the winter months.

Both revolutionizing areas have public executions by hanging and shootings for prisoners who had tried to escape or who had been caught “stealing” food. In at least one case an attempted escapee was tied and dragged behind a car in front of the assembled prisoners until dead.

In 2004, a Japanese television station aired what it said was footage [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BN0xQByxwxk&eurl=] showing scenes from the camp.

In 2008, a new documentary, "Yodok Stories", by Andzej Fidyk [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0275789/] came out, telling a story of a small group of people that have managed to escape from Yodŏk camp. [http://www.nfi.no/english/norwegianfilms/show.html?id=793]

References

ee also

* Hoeryong concentration camp
* Yoduk Story
* Human rights in North Korea
* List of Korea-related topics

Further reading

* [http://nkhumanrights.or.kr/NKHR_new/index_eng_new.htm Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights] - Witness accounts of refugees
* [http://hrnk.org/hiddengulag/toc.html Human Rights for North Korea] - Summary on Concentration camps with satellite pictures
* [http://ncafe.com/northkorea/youngkuklee.html North Korea's Tangled Web] - Witness account of Lee Young-kuk
* [http://www.perseusbooksgroup.com/basic/book_detail.jsp?isbn=0465011047 The Aquariums of Pyongyang Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag] - Account of prisoner from Yodŏk.
* [http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200602/200602050001.html "N.K. Prison Camp Musical Falls Foul of Seoul Officialdom"] , The Chosun Ilbo, February 5, 2006.
* [http://www.nkfreedomhouse.org/resources/refugeestories/TaeJinKim.pdf My Experience in a Political Prison Camp] by Tae-Jin Kim. [http://66.39.74.146/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/TaeJinKim.pdf (mirror)]
* [http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/09/news/korea.php?page=1 Born and raised in a North Korean gulag] by Choe Sang-hun, International Herald Tribune, July 9, 2007