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Our Reports

For over a decade, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) has worked to document and analyze North Korea's prison camp system. Termed "hidden gulag" in 2003 by report author and human rights scholar David Hawk, these political prison camps are places of vast suffering for 80,000 to 120,000 people in North Korea.  Many thousands more are thought to be interned in North Korea's labor camps as well. 

As HRNK continues to publish information on North Korea's prison camp system, its "hidden gulags" are less and less hidden to the rest of the world. Although the Kim Regime still denies the existence of its political prison camps, we know, unfortunately, through satellite imagery and escapee testimony, that these camps exist.

Some of our reports are highlighted here, including David Hawk's Hidden Gulag series and AllSource Analysis' and DigitalGlobe's reports of the camps with satellite imagery.

Hidden Gulag Series

​The Parallel Gulag: North Korea's "An-jeon-bu" Prison Camps

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David Hawk with Amanda Mortwedt Oh
Oct 26, 2017
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In this book, David Hawk provides never-before-seen imagery of labor re-education camps, both suspected and confirmed. He reveals a parallel network of prisons controlled by the DPRK’s Ministry of People’s Security (An-jeon-bu). These revelations suggest the imposition of degrees of suffering even more pervasive than the UN COI described in 2014. Although these labor camps might be described as “ordinary prisons”, there is nothing “ordinary” in the treatment of those incarcerated there. Differences in the treatment of prisoners and political detainees are often merely “matters of degree, not principle. Policies that combine forced labour with deliberate starvation, inadequate medical care and poor hygiene conditions cause the death of thousands of inmates annually.”
The Parallel Gulag
File Size: 12385 kb
File Type: pdf
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​The Hidden Gulag IV: Gender Repression and Prisoner Disappearances

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David Hawk
Sep 18, 2015


David Hawk has authored the fourth edition of The Hidden Gulag and has discovered gender repression and prisoner double disappearances in the political prison camps of North Korea. 
Hidden Gulag 4.pdf
File Size: 1798 kb
File Type: pdf
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North Korea's Hidden Gulag: Interpreting Reports of Changes in the Prison Camps

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David Hawk
Aug 27, 2013


David Hawk interprets reports of changes in North Korea's political prison camps in his most recent report, 
North Korea's Hidden Gulag: Interpreting Reports of Changes in the Prison Camps. 
Hidden Gulag 3.pdf
File Size: 706 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

The Hidden Gulag Second Edition

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David Hawk
Apr 10, 2012
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Based on extensive interviews with over 60 defectors and more than 40 satellite photos of North Korean political prisoner camps, the report calls for the dismantlement of the vast North Korean gulag system in which 150,000 to 200,000 are incarcerated.
Hidden Gulag 2.pdf
File Size: 5460 kb
File Type: pdf
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The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps

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David Hawk
2003


A prominent human rights investigator and advocate, David Hawk, and the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea compiled a full documentation of North Korean political prisoner camps. 
Hidden Gulag 1.pdf
File Size: 4551 kb
File Type: pdf
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Other Recent Publications

North Korea’s Long-term Prison-Labor Facility Kyo-hwa-so No. 1, Kaechon

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Kyo-hwa-so No. 1 Kaechon
File Size: 6926 kb
File Type: pdf
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Joseph S. Bermudez, Greg Scarlatoiu, Amanda M. Oh, & Rosa Park
Mar 25, 2020


This study combines former prisoner testimony collected in 2019 with declassified satellite imagery collected during 1962–1972 and imagery from 2002 to 2019.

Digital Trenches: North Korea’s Information Counter-Offensive

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Martyn Williams
Dec 18, 2019


While North Korea remains the most restricted media environment in the world and violates its citizens’ fundamental human right to information, Williams delves into the technicalities of keeping people cut off from the world’s digital network. 
Digital Trenches
File Size: 4466 kb
File Type: pdf
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Lost Generation: The Health and Human Rights of North Korean Children, 1990–2018

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W. Courtland Robinson
Oct 18, 2019
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Lost Generation: The Health and Human Rights of North Korean Children, 1990–2018 is a nearly thirty-year study monitoring the health and human rights conditions of North Korean children. 
Lost Generation
File Size: 3398 kb
File Type: pdf
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North Korea's Organization and Guidance Department: The Control Tower of Human Rights Denial

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Robert Collins
Sep 18, 2019


Robert Collins masterfully organizes and guides us through the leadership of the regime’s most influential and secretive organization in existence today.
Human Rights Denial
File Size: 8984 kb
File Type: pdf
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North Korea’s Long-term Re-education through Labor Camp (Kyo-hwa-so) No. 4 at Kangdong

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Kyohwaso No. 4 at Kangdong
File Size: 6815 kb
File Type: pdf
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Joseph S. Bermudez, Greg Scarlatoiu, Amanda M. Oh, & Rosa Park
Jun 20, 2019


This study details activity observed during the past 15 years at a prison facility identified by escapees and researchers as “Kyo-hwa-so No. 4, Kangdong” (39.008838° 126.153277°) and endeavors to establish a preliminary baseline report of the facility.

North Korea’s Long-term Re-education through Labor Camp (Kyo-hwa-so) at Pokchong-ni

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Kyohwaso at Pokchongni
File Size: 6085 kb
File Type: pdf
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Joseph S. Bermudez, Greg Scarlatoiu, Amanda M. Oh, & Rosa Park
May 29, 2019
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This study details activity observed during the past 14 years at a prison facility that is provisionally being identified as the Pokchŏng-ni Kyo-hwa-so (39.001730 126.055616) and endeavors to establish a preliminary baseline report of the facility.
More Publications
read about the united nations commission of inquiry report on north korea

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  • Home
  • About the Camps
    • Introduction
    • Kwan-li-so vs. Kyo-hwa-so
    • Locations
    • HRNK Reports
    • UN Commission of Inquiry
    • Transitional Justice
  • Blog
  • Victims
    • Prisoners
    • Women
    • Disappeared Persons
  • HRNK
    • About us
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  • Donate