Onsong concentration camp

The Onsong concentration camp was an internment camp in North Korea. It housed approximately 15,000 political prisoners and was located in Changpyong, Onsong County, North Hamgyong. It was officially known as Concentration Camp (Kwan-li-so) No. 12.

Ahn Myong-chol, a North Korean defector in the South who had served as a guard at a nearby concentration camp at the time, alleged a massacre of prisoners had occurred, quoting platoon and squad leaders who participated in the suppression operation. Another North Korean defector Mun Hyon-il who had long lived in the Onsong district also claimed that he learned about the massacre from the villagers when he visited the site after Onsong Concentration Camp had been shut down.

The riot erupted in May 1987, when a political prisoner working as a coal miner beat a State Security Agency operative to death in protest against excessive torture. Over 200 inmates who were at the scene also beat to death another prison official and attacked their quarters across a hill. Political prisoners who all but gave up on their lives joined the riot to boost their forces to over 5,000.

When the situation got out of control, Concentration Camp No. 12, reinforced by the guards and equipment of a nearby concentration camp and armed with machine guns, encircled the camp, fired at rioters at random, and killed all the 5,000 rioters, according to the sources. With the riot suppressed, rioters' bodies were either burned, or buried in groups in the nearby hills, while those of guards and their families were buried in the nearby Sawol-ri cemetery.

The camp was closed in 1989, a decision thought to be because of its proximity to the border with China.

The closed camp 12 was known as a "Kwan-li-so", a prison colony for political prisoners. Confusingly, there is another Camp No. 12 still in operation today in Onsong county. The closed one was part of the "Kwaliso" system of prisons, for political crimes, while the one still open today is classified as a Kyo-hwa-so for non-political crimes. Kyo-hwa-so No. 12 is in Jeonger-ri and has a population between 1300 and 1500. Several survivors have testified to conditions at this other prison camp.

See also

• Hoeryong concentration camp
• Yodok concentration camp
• Human rights in North Korea
• List of prisons in Qinghai, China
• Xi'ning Prison

References

• David Hawk. "The Hidden Gulag". U.S. Committee on Human Rights in North Korea. http://www.hrnk.org/download/The_Hidden_Gulag.pdf. 

External links

• "Escapees from North Korean Hell", Le Monde, May 14, 2001.
• "5000 Prisoners Massacred at Onsong Concentration Camp in 1987", Chosun Ilbo, December 11, 2002.
• "The testimony of An Myong Chol", Monthly Chosun, March, 1995.
• "Pyongyang watch: The riot act?", Asia Times, November 3, 1999.