Yodok concentration camp
Encyclopedia
Yodok concentration camp (also romanized Yodŏk, Yodeok, or Yoduk) is a political prison camp in North Korea
. The official name is Kwan-li-so
(penal labor colony) No. 15.
, South Hamgyong province in North Korea
. It stretches in the valley of Ipsok river, surrounded by the mountains Paek-san (1,742 m or 5,715 ft in the north), Modo-san (1,833 m or 6,014 ft in the northwest), Tok-san (1,250 m or 4,101 ft in the west) and Byeongpung-san (1,152 m or 3,780 ft in the south).
In the 1990s an estimated 30,000 prisoners were in the larger “total control zone” and an estimated 16,500 prisoners were in the smaller “revolutionary zone”, but recent satellite images indicate a significant increase in the scale of the camp. Most prisoners are deported to Yodok without trial or following grossly unfair trials on the basis of “confessions” obtained through torture. Often people are imprisoned together with family members and close relatives, including little children and old people, based on the guilt by association (Sippenhaft
) principle.
The camp is around 378 km² (146 mi²) wide. It is surrounded by a 3 - 4 m ( 10 - 13 ft) high barbed-wire fence and walls with electric wire, with watchtowers in regular intervals. The camp is patrolled by 1,000 guards with automatic rifles and guard dogs.
Lee Young-kuk estimates that around 20% of prisoners in the Taesuk-ri revolutionizing zone died per year, while new prisoners arrived each month.
In 2004, a Japanese television station aired what it said was footage showing scenes from the camp.
quarry and a gold mine, textile plants, distilleries, a coppersmith workshop and some agriculture.
The new prisoners get the clothes that their predecessors had worn until their dying day. Most prisoners are poorly dressed in dirty and worn-out clothes with holes and rags. They have no proper shoes, socks or gloves and no spare clothes.
Prisoners are buried naked, because the others take all leftover possessions of dead prisoners.
All prisoners are covered with a thick layer of dirt, as they are overworked and have almost no opportunity to wash themselves or their clothes. As a result the prisoners’ huts stink and are full of lice, fleas and other insects. Prisoners have to queue in front of dirty community toilets, one for 200 prisoners, using dry leaves for cleaning.
The camp guards make prisoners to report on each other and designate prisoners as foremen to control a group. If one person does not work hard enough, the whole group is punished, which forces the prisoners to create a system of self-surveillance.
Instead of execution, a more common method to kill prisoners singled out to die is to assign them work they could not finish. When they did not finish the work, their food rations were reduced as punishment. Eventually the combination of heavy work and less food led to death by starvation for many.
by the guards. Prisoners are often ordered to strip naked to be beaten and harassed. A defector said, that is has become routine for security agents to sexually abuse female prisoners. Sometimes women die after being raped. Pregnant women were usually given forced abortions.
summarize the human rights situation in Yodok camp like this: Men, women and children in the camp face forced hard labour, inadequate food, beatings, totally inadequate medical care and unhygienic living conditions. Many fall ill while in prison, and a large number die in custody or soon after release. The organization demands to immediately close Yodok and all other political prison camps in North Korea to stop the appalling, systematic and widespread human rights abuses. This demand is supported by the International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea (ICNK), an international coalition of over 40 human rights organizations.
Kang Chol-hwan and An Hyuk testified that they met Shin Suk-ja while they were imprisoned in Yodok.
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. The official name is Kwan-li-so
Kwan-li-so
North Korea’s political penal labour colonies, transliterated kwalliso or kwan-li-so, constitute one of three forms of political imprisonment in the country, the other two being what Hawk translates as “short-term detention/forced-labor centers” and “long-term prison labor camps” for misdemeanour...
(penal labor colony) No. 15.
Location
The camp is located in Yodok countyYodok
Yodok is a county in South Hamgyong province, North Korea. Originally part of Yonghung County, it became a separate entity as part of the 1952 reorganization of local government.-Physical features:...
, South Hamgyong province in North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
. It stretches in the valley of Ipsok river, surrounded by the mountains Paek-san (1,742 m or 5,715 ft in the north), Modo-san (1,833 m or 6,014 ft in the northwest), Tok-san (1,250 m or 4,101 ft in the west) and Byeongpung-san (1,152 m or 3,780 ft in the south).
Description
Yodok camp has two parts, a “total control zone” for political prisoners in lifelong detention and a “revolutionary zone” similar to the reeducation camps.- The “total control zone” with the prison labor colonies Pyongchang-ri and Yongpyong-ri is for people whom the authorities perceive to have committed anti-regime crimes or who were denounced to be politically unreliable (e. g. returnees from Japan or Christians). These prisoners are never released.
- The “revolutionary zone” with reeducation camps Ipsok-ri, Kuup-ri and Daesuk-ri is to punish people for less serious political crimes (e. g. illegally leaving the country, listening to South Korean broadcasts or critical remarks on government policy). These prisoners are eventually released after serving a long sentence.
In the 1990s an estimated 30,000 prisoners were in the larger “total control zone” and an estimated 16,500 prisoners were in the smaller “revolutionary zone”, but recent satellite images indicate a significant increase in the scale of the camp. Most prisoners are deported to Yodok without trial or following grossly unfair trials on the basis of “confessions” obtained through torture. Often people are imprisoned together with family members and close relatives, including little children and old people, based on the guilt by association (Sippenhaft
Sippenhaft
Sippenhaft or Sippenhaftung was a form of collective punishment practised in Nazi Germany towards the end of the Second World War. It was a legalized practice in which relatives of persons accused of crimes against the state were held to share the responsibility for those crimes and subject to...
) principle.
The camp is around 378 km² (146 mi²) wide. It is surrounded by a 3 - 4 m ( 10 - 13 ft) high barbed-wire fence and walls with electric wire, with watchtowers in regular intervals. The camp is patrolled by 1,000 guards with automatic rifles and guard dogs.
Lee Young-kuk estimates that around 20% of prisoners in the Taesuk-ri revolutionizing zone died per year, while new prisoners arrived each month.
In 2004, a Japanese television station aired what it said was footage showing scenes from the camp.
Purpose
Main purpose of Yodok concentration camp is to isolate politically unreliable persons for lifetime from society and punish people for political crimes. The prisoners are exploited with hard labor, treated essentially like slaves. Labor operations include a gypsumGypsum
Gypsum is a very soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula CaSO4·2H2O. It is found in alabaster, a decorative stone used in Ancient Egypt. It is the second softest mineral on the Mohs Hardness Scale...
quarry and a gold mine, textile plants, distilleries, a coppersmith workshop and some agriculture.
Living conditions
The prisoners live in primitive huts with dried earth for walls, rotten wooden roofs, where it rains inside, and a floor covered with straw and dry plant mats. In a room of around 50 m² (540 ft²) 30 - 40 single prisoners sleep on a sort of bed made out of a wooden board with a blanket to cover. Most huts are not heated, even in winter at temperatures below - 20 °C ( - 4 °F ), therefore most prisoners suffer from frostbites and swollen hands and legs in winter. And no medical treatment is available.The new prisoners get the clothes that their predecessors had worn until their dying day. Most prisoners are poorly dressed in dirty and worn-out clothes with holes and rags. They have no proper shoes, socks or gloves and no spare clothes.
Prisoners are buried naked, because the others take all leftover possessions of dead prisoners.
All prisoners are covered with a thick layer of dirt, as they are overworked and have almost no opportunity to wash themselves or their clothes. As a result the prisoners’ huts stink and are full of lice, fleas and other insects. Prisoners have to queue in front of dirty community toilets, one for 200 prisoners, using dry leaves for cleaning.
The camp guards make prisoners to report on each other and designate prisoners as foremen to control a group. If one person does not work hard enough, the whole group is punished, which forces the prisoners to create a system of self-surveillance.
Torture
The following torture methods are described in testimonies of former prisoners:- “Pigeon torture”: The prisoner’s arms are tied behind his back, his legs tied together, hanged in mid-air from the ceiling for several days.
- Forced water ingestionWater cure (torture)Water cure as a term for a form of torture refers to a method in which the victim is forced to drink large quantities of water in a short time, resulting in gastric distension, water intoxication and possibly death....
: The prisoner is strapped to a table and forced to drink large amounts of water. Later the guards jump on a board laid on the swollen stomach to force the water out. - Immersion in water: A plastic bag is placed over the prisoner’s head and he is submerged in water for long periods of time.
- Prisoners are beaten every day, for example if work quotas were not met, if they do not kneel down quick enough before the guards or just to humiliate them. Often prisoners are disabled or die from the beatings. Even children are severely beaten and tormented.
- The prisoners are treated arbitrarily at the guards’ mercy and the guards could abuse them as they want. For example former prisoners witnessed a man being tied by the neck to a vehicle and dragged for a long distance and a primary school child being beaten and kicked hard on his head. In both cases the prisoners died soon after.
Executions
Prisoners who violate camp rules, e. g. stealing food or attempting to escape, are usually publicly executed, in case they are not yet directly shot at the spot. Summary executions take place in front of assembled prisoners several times every year and every former prisoner has witnessed them. Before the execution the prisoners are tortured and not given food. Often watching prisoners cannot endure the scene without protest and are then killed as well.Instead of execution, a more common method to kill prisoners singled out to die is to assign them work they could not finish. When they did not finish the work, their food rations were reduced as punishment. Eventually the combination of heavy work and less food led to death by starvation for many.
Abuse and forced abortions
Women in the camp are completely unprotected against sexual assaultsSexual assault
Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....
by the guards. Prisoners are often ordered to strip naked to be beaten and harassed. A defector said, that is has become routine for security agents to sexually abuse female prisoners. Sometimes women die after being raped. Pregnant women were usually given forced abortions.
Demand for closure
Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
summarize the human rights situation in Yodok camp like this: Men, women and children in the camp face forced hard labour, inadequate food, beatings, totally inadequate medical care and unhygienic living conditions. Many fall ill while in prison, and a large number die in custody or soon after release. The organization demands to immediately close Yodok and all other political prison camps in North Korea to stop the appalling, systematic and widespread human rights abuses. This demand is supported by the International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea (ICNK), an international coalition of over 40 human rights organizations.
Prisoners (Witnesses)
- Kang Chol-hwanKang Chol-HwanKang Chol-Hwan is a defector from North Korea. As a child he was imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp for 10 years; after his release he fled the country, first to China and eventually to South Korea...
(1977 - 1987 in Yodok) was imprisoned as 9 year old child, because his family returned from Japan and was considered as politically unreliable. - An HyukAn HyukAn Hyuk is a North Korean defector. He formerly lived as an expatriate in China, and repatriated to North Korea in 1986; however, he was accused of spying, and imprisoned at the Yodok concentration camp. He escaped from North Korea together with Kang Chol-Hwan, whom he met while interned at Yodok...
(1987 - 1989 in Yodok) was imprisoned at the age of 18, because he illegally left North Korea. - Kim Tae-jin (1988 - 1992 in Yodok) was imprisoned at the age of 18, because he illegally left North Korea.
- Lee Young-kuk (1995 - 1999 in Yodok), former bodyguard of Kim Jong-ilKim Jong-ilKim Jong-il, also written as Kim Jong Il, birth name Yuri Irsenovich Kim born 16 February 1941 or 16 February 1942 , is the Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea...
, was kidnapped in China and imprisoned, because he illegally left North Korea and criticized the country. - Kim Eun-cheol (2000 - 2003 in Yodok) was imprisoned at the age of 19, because he illegally left North Korea and was repatriated by Russia.
- South Korean citizens Shin Suk-jaShin Suk-jaShin Suk-ja is a South Korean political prisoner held in a North Korean political prison camp. She is married to Oh Kil-nam and has two daughters Oh Hye-won and Oh Kyu-won...
and her daughters Oh Hye-won and Oh Kyu-won (since 1987 in Yodok; the daughters were 9 and 11 years then) were imprisoned, because her husband Oh Kil-namOh Kil-namOh Kil-nam is a retired South Korean economist, who defected to North Korea with his wife Shin Suk-jaand daughters, then left them behind to obtain political asylum in Europe.-Early life and education:...
did not return from a stay abroad. Two years before the family was lured from Germany to North Korea on North Korean agents’ false promises. - South Korean citizen Jeong Sang-un (since 2010 in Yodok) is an unrepatriated Korean War prisoner and was imprisoned as 84 year old man, because he illegally left North Korea.
Kang Chol-hwan and An Hyuk testified that they met Shin Suk-ja while they were imprisoned in Yodok.
Literature/Musical/Film
- Literature: In 2001 Kang Chol-hwanKang Chol-HwanKang Chol-Hwan is a defector from North Korea. As a child he was imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp for 10 years; after his release he fled the country, first to China and eventually to South Korea...
has written the book "The Aquariums of PyongyangThe Aquariums of PyongyangThe Aquariums of Pyongyang, by Kang Chol-Hwan and Pierre Rigoulot, is an account of the imprisonment of Kang Chol-Hwan and his family in the Yodok concentration camp in North Korea....
" describing life in Yodok camp during his childhood. - Musical: In 2006 Jung Sung-san (another former prisoner of Yodok camp) has directed the musical "Yoduk StoryYoduk StoryYoduk Story is a stage play by North Korean defector Jung Sung San , released in 2006. The story is based on stories of political prisoners at the Yodok concentration camp. This harrowing musical premiered in the US in October 2006...
" about Yodok camp. - Film: In 2008 Andrzej FidykAndrzej FidykAndrzej Fidyk is a Polish documentary filmmaker and producer. His best-known work is his 1989 documentary Defilada , which depicts the mass parades choreographed to celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in 1988.Initially Fidyk planned to be an economist...
has made the film "Yodok StoriesYodok StoriesYodok Stories is a documentary film directed by Pole Andrzej Fidyk and produced by Torstein Grude. Today, more than 200,000 men, women and children face torture, starvation and murder in North Korea's concentration camps...
" about the life in Yodok camp. Some North Korean refugees are acting in this film. The film is based on scenes from the musicals and on witness accounts.
See also
- Human rights in North KoreaHuman rights in North KoreaThe human rights record of North Korea is extremely hard to fully assess due to the secretive and closed nature of the country. The North Korean government makes it very difficult for foreigners to enter the country and strictly monitors their activities when they do...
- Shin Suk-jaShin Suk-jaShin Suk-ja is a South Korean political prisoner held in a North Korean political prison camp. She is married to Oh Kil-nam and has two daughters Oh Hye-won and Oh Kyu-won...
- Hoeryong concentration campHoeryong concentration campCamp 22 is a North Korean prison for political prisoners and their relatives. The camp is the largest concentration camp in North Korea and is thought to hold 50,000 prisoners.-History:According to Ahn Myong Chol, a guard at the camp between 1987 and 1994, Camp 22 was established in 1959...
- Yoduk StoryYoduk StoryYoduk Story is a stage play by North Korean defector Jung Sung San , released in 2006. The story is based on stories of political prisoners at the Yodok concentration camp. This harrowing musical premiered in the US in October 2006...
- List of Korea-related topics
Further reading
- Committee for Human Rights in North Korea: The Hidden Gulag - Overview on North Korean Prison Camps with Testimonies and Satellite Photographs
- Amnesty International: North Korea: Political Prison Camps - Document on camp conditions (torture, executions, hunger, child labor, forced labor) in Yodok and other camps
- Citizens' Alliance for North Korean Human Rights: Documents - Testimonies and witness accounts of North Korean refugees
- Washington Post: North Koreas Hard Labor Camps - Explore North Korean prison camps with interactive map of Yodok camp
- The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag - Book review of Kang Chol-hwan’s account from Yodok
- BBC News: 'Life of hard labour' in North Korean camp - Report on Kang Chul-hwan and Yodok camp
- Los Angeles Times: North Korean ex-prisoners recall ordeal in gulag - Former Yodok prisoners report that suspects and their relatives are incarcerated without trial
- Amnesty International: End horror of North Korean political prison camps - Petition by Amnesty International to close Yodok camp
- Amnesty International: Yodok Prison Camp in North Korea - Video by Amnesty International on analyzing Yodok satellite images and testimonies