The Contested Efficacy of Coloring Inside the Lines

The first is a piece by Lee Sang Won in the Daily NK titled “Marginal improvement at ‘kyohwaso’ amid international pressure.” North Korea has a fairly variegated set of penal institutions. The kyohwaso, literally, a “place to make someone better through education,” is sometimes translated as correctional or re-education centers, superficially resembling felony prisons. In the case of North Korea, though, felonies are defined expansively to include political and economic offenses such as “anti-state, anti-people crimes,” “crimes injurious to socialist culture,” and so on. In his pioneering work on the gulag, David Hawk provides the example of a woman imprisoned in a kyohwaso for disturbing the “socialist order” for singing a South Korean pop song in a private home. And these do not appear to be practices of the past: Radio Free Asia reports that three women were recently executed for distributing DVDs of a South Korean soap opera. [PIIE]

North Korea Prison Camp Population to Grow

​Marginal improvement at 'kyohwaso' amid international pressure

11.12. 2015
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North Korea's largest political prison camp is expanding its operations, according to the most recent images of the penal labor colony.

Using Google Earth satellite imagery, Curtis Melvin of the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, told Radio Free Asia that the aerial snapshots from Oct. 15 indicated considerable changes have been made to Camp No. 16.Hwasong gulag, or Camp No. 16 in 2013. New Google Earth satellite imagery of North Korea's largest political prison showed that North Korea is planning an increase in the population of inmates. 
...
Melvin said the new changes included dams, hydroelectric power plants, apartments for the camp's guards, an athletic field, a mine and fish farms. These facilities were not visible in satellite imagery taken in 2013.
The latest construction appears to indicate that North Korea is planning for an increase in the population of inmates detained at Camp No. 16, which according to Yonhap, is half the area of Pyongyang, the country's capital. In 2014, Amnesty International said in a statement the camp imprisons about 20,000 people and the prisoners are forced to work in very treacherous conditions. [UPI]

11. 25. 2015
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A continual number of deaths within North Korea’s kyohwaso [reeducation camps, which function as prisons] from torture and beatings has prompted leader Kim Jong Un to order penalization of safety officials who cause such deaths. The move is said to reflect the regime’s concerns about mounting pressure from the outside world on its human rights track record, but the mandate excludes those held for political crimes. [Daily NK]

Ex-U.N. official: North Korean caste system is the new apartheid

N. Korea Tolerates No Religious Freedom: Annual U.S. Report

10.22.2015

Navi Pillay told an audience in Seoul that North Korea's caste system discriminates against its own population and is a new example of apartheid, Voice of America reported. Pillay said North Korea should eliminate its "Songbun," or caste system, and release the tens of thousands of political prisoners who are serving sentences after receiving unfair trials. [UPI]

10.15.2015
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North Korea tolerates no religious freedom and continues to deal harshly with those involved in "almost any religious practices," the U.S. State Department said in an annual religious freedom report Wednesday.

"The government continued to deal harshly with those who engaged in almost any religious practices through executions, torture, beatings, and arrests," it said. "An estimated 80,000 to 120,000 political prisoners, some imprisoned for religious reasons, were believed to be held in the political prison camp system." [iFreeNK]

Second Round of Mass Prisoner Amnesty Carried Out

U.N., E.U. Plan to Refer North Korea Rights Abuses to ICC

 10.14.2015
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Following a massive release of prisoners in light of Korea’s liberation day from Japan’s colonial rule on August 15, Pyongyang issued a second round of pardons for prisoners ahead of the recent 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party celebrated on October 10. 

The release was carried out across two days -- October 8, 9 -- but most prisoners were said to be in dire condition, either suffering from malnutrition or having fallen sick. Although state propaganda promoted the sweeping amnesty as an act of benevolence from Kim Jong Un, the released prisoners would not have been able to continue serving their sentences due to their ailing conditions, Daily NK has learned. Following a massive release of prisoners in light of Korea’s liberation day from Japan’s colonial rule on August 15, Pyongyang issued a second round of pardons for prisoners ahead of the recent 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party celebrated on October 10. 
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The release was carried out across two days -- October 8, 9 -- but most prisoners were said to be in dire condition, either suffering from malnutrition or having fallen sick. Although state propaganda promoted the sweeping amnesty as an act of benevolence from Kim Jong Un, the released prisoners would not have been able to continue serving their sentences due to their ailing conditions, Daily NK has learned. [Daily NK]

10.14.2015
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The United Nations has begun to look into ways to refer the North Korean human rights situation to the International Criminal Court.
A South Korean government source speaking to News 1 on the condition of anonymity said a draft resolution is being created under an initiative led by the European Union and other countries concerned with North Korea human rights violations.

In February 2014, the U.N.'s Commission of Inquiry panel released an extensive report chronicling human rights abuses under the Pyongyang regime. The report, which included testimonies from defectors who witnessed summary execution, rape, torture and forced labor, asked for prosecution at the ICC, but the action requires approval from the U.N. Security Council. [UPI]

North Korea: Ruling Party Benefits From Forced Labor

10.7.2015

Prisoners in North Korea’s political prisons, “reform through labor” camps, and short-term detention facilities face back-breaking forced labor in difficult and dangerous conditions, sometimes in winter elements without proper clothing or adequate housing. Prisoners enter this forced labor regimen weakened by near starvation level food rations and little or no medical care. They work in logging camps, mines, and farms without protective equipment, overseen by guards who use physical and psychological abuse to compel the work, and inflict sexual abuse. 

“Forced labor in North Korea has become so common that it’s no exaggeration to say it dominates the lives of ordinary citizens on a daily basis,” Robertson said. “This is a hidden human rights crisis in North Korea that has been overlooked for far too long.” [HRW]

North Korean Files Rare Complaint Against Authorities to Get Son's Body

North Korea detains between 80,000 and 120,000 prisoners in political prison camps, or about one of every 200 citizens, according to a report issued in February 2014 by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea, which documented the network of such prisons and the atrocities that occur inside them. [RFA]

North Korea Escape

Jihyun is one of 600 registered North Korean Refugees who have made their home in England. Hers is an extraordinary story: from being sold as a slave bride in China to working 20-hour days in a gruelling labour camp, and the dramatic moment during her escape when an unknown man - now her partner - saved her from being sent back. [Telegraph]

UN: 'Crimes against humanity have been found' in North Korea

U.N. Office in Seoul Intensifying Probes of Alleged Rights Abuses in North Korea

9.21.2015
The UN Commission of Inquiry has said that it found crimes against humanity in North Korea. The commission urged the international community to respond and investigate the case properly.

Michael Kirby, Chairman of the Commission of Inquiry on North Korea, told a news conference in Geneva: Crimes against humanity have been found and it is not open to the world community to turn away. It is the duty of the world community when there have been findings that there is a reasonable case for crimes against humanity, it is the obligation of the international community to respond and have those matters properly investigated and if found to warrant prosecution brought before an appropriate court or tribunal. That is an obligation of international law.

In February 2014, the commission established in its report that between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners were detained in four large political prison camps, where deliberate starvation had been used as a means of control and punishment. The commission also found that, since 1950, the States violence has been externalised through State-sponsored abductions and enforced disappearances of people from other nations. These international enforced disappearances are unique in their intensity, scale and nature, the report said. [IBT].

9.23.2015
The United Nations has opened an office here aimed at prodding North Korea to close a network of prison camps it says are holding thousands of political prisoners and to build a fuller picture of human rights abuses within the hermetic country.

The six-person office is the latest step in a process by the U.N. to gather information about alleged crimes against humanity in North Korea. Early last year, a U.N. commission of inquiry issued a 400-page report that alleged widespread and systematic human rights abuses in North Korea.

“We’re looking to bring more depth to the report. Seoul is the best place to be for that,” Signe Poulsen, representative for the office, told The Wall Street Journal in an interview. Ms. Poulsen arrived in South Korea in August and will coordinate information gathering from North Korean refugees, activist groups, academics and other North Korea-related parties. [WSJ]

Scores released from NK's re-education camps

Choi Song Min
9.3.2015
The North Korean authorities released thousands of prisoners from the country’s re-education camps [kyohwaso] to mark the 70th anniversary of country’s independence from Japan. A car with blaring loudspeakers and advertisements announced that the first batch of amnesties has been enacted, and that the second batch will be granted in October to mark the 70th anniversary of the foundation of the Workers’ Party of Korea [WPK]. 

“Last month on the morning of the 15th, amnesties were dispersed to certain prisoners kept at 12 different‘re-education’ camps throughout the country. The sentence reductions and releases are being divided up between two different dates in order to coincide with important historical dates on August 15th and October 10th,” a source in North Pyongan Province reported to Daily NK on September 2nd. 

The move is designed to make the Marshal [Kim Jong Un], seem bold, considerate, and resolute at a time when people reflect upon the nation’s triumph over Japan and the foundation the Workers’ Party. As news continues to spread about the amnesties, the released prisoners will serve as advertisements for Kim Jong Un’s generosity and "care for the people," according to the source, who added that at some of the released prisoners' workplaces [mostly factories] welcome receptions were held to celebrate their release, according to the source.  (DailyNK)

U.S. State Department Releases its 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report Calling North Korea a Tier 3 Country

7.27.2015
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK or North Korea) is a source country for men, women, and children who are subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. Forced labor is part of an established system of political repression. The government subjects its nationals to forced labor in prison camps in North Korea and through government-contracted labor in foreign countries. North Korea holds an estimated 80,000 to 120,000 prisoners in prison camps in remote areas of the country; in many cases these prisoners have not been prosecuted, convicted, or sentenced in a judicial proceeding. In prison camps, all prisoners, including children, are subject to forced labor, including logging, mining, or farming for long hours under harsh conditions. Prisoners are subjected to unhygienic living conditions, beatings, a lack of medical care, and insufficient food; many do not survive. Furnaces and mass graves are used to dispose of the bodies of those who die in these camps. (State)

North Korea Sends Army Officer to Prison Camp For Leaking 'Secret' Information

7.24.2015
North Korea’s regime leader Kim Jong Un has ordered the head of a border guard unit, his family, and a soldier under his command punished after he was discovered trying to sell materials portraying life inside the hermit kingdom to Chinese nationals, sources said. Kim immediately ordered the commander and his family members placed in a prison camp, the source said, adding that “even the soldier [under his command] who was not aware of what happened” was sentenced to life in prison following trials, which found him “guilty, by association.” (RFA)

Former prisoner recounts life in 'Camp 607' 

7.9.2015
Scores of detainees in 'Camp 607,' a military labor-training camp under the Korean People’s Army Defense Security Command, are dying from starvation according to a local source with experience being detained in these facilities. (DailyNK)

U.S. calls for release of female political prisoners in N. Korea

9.1.2015
The United States on Tuesday launched a human rights campaign calling for the release of female political prisoners and other prisoners of concern around the world, including those in North Korea.

The #FreeThe20 campaign comes ahead of an international women's rights conference to be held at the United Nations later this month. The conference is known as Beijing+20 conference as it comes 20 years after a similar conference held in the Chinese capital.

In the campaign, the U.S. singled out 20 cases of women prisoners around the world, including Wang Yu of China and Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan, and called for their immediate release. The list also included an "unidentified" prisoner in North Korea.

"I will say that there are more than 100,000 political prisoners in North Korea that we know about, and the conditions in the network of prisons in North Korea are unspeakable, the risk to any specific individual in those prisons excessive," U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said during a briefing.

"And so all things considered, the judgment was made, number one, there are so many political prisoners that singling any one woman out -- or girl out, for that matter -- in a way wouldn't reflect the scope and the scale of the challenge. And two, again, that the risk could be substantial to that individual," she said of the reason to include an "unidentified" North Korean prisoner.

North Korea has long been labeled as one of the worst human rights violators. The communist regime does not tolerate dissent, holds hundreds of thousands of people in political prison camps and keeps tight control over outside information. (Yonhap)

Moving Forward on North Korean Human Rights

Christine Chung
7.27.2015
While the Seoul office will undoubtedly play an important role in keeping up the level of pressure on Pyongyang to address its human rights concerns, the international community will need to take action separate of these efforts, particularly to influence progress in the more immediate term. For example, other actors might persuade North Korea to permit prison visits by international monitors, as normal states do routinely.  Such a step is not far-fetched; international law entitles the DPRK to a penal system as part of its domestic security regime, provided that due process is upheld and the reasons for and conditions of detention comply with human rights. If international monitors were allowed to visit North Korean detention facilities—which Pyongyang acknowledges, unlike its political prison camps—experts could begin a dialogue on improving detention conditions that have been noted to be in breach of international standards. Such an initiative would help North Korea show it can substantively collaborate with the international community on human rights issues, while possibly paving the way for engagement on a broader human rights agenda. (38 North)

Families of Prisoners Bribe Judicial Officials Ahead of North Korean Amnesty

7.21.2015
North Koreans with family members in jail are engaging in an intense campaign to bribe judicial authorities to release their relatives as part of an amnesty program for prisoners that will be held in commemoration of two political anniversaries, sources inside the country said. The standing committee of the Supreme People’s Assembly, the unicameral legislature of North Korea, announced on July 9 that prisoners who had been found guilty of offenses against the state and were currently serving prison sentences would receive amnesty on August 1 in celebration of the 70th anniversaries of national emancipation from Japanese rule and the founding of the Korean Workers’ Party, according to a recent report by state-controlled Korean Central News Agency. (RFA)

Counting missing toes: prison camp life

6.4.2015
Lee Myung-Jin, who escaped North Korea in 2013, testifies: “In North Korea’s detention camps, prisoners refer to having a ‘suffering age’, or prison age. Every year, during winter, prisoners suffer from frostbite, resulting not infrequently in the loss of their toes. Life in the camps is so destitute that most prisoners don’t even have shoes to wear for walking on frozen ground.  When another prisoner dies, the first thing other inmates do is go for their shoes, if they wore any.”

Lee explained, “The number of missing or blue toes resulting from frostbite is part of a prisoner’s ‘suffering age’. My own experiences in the camps resulted in three of my toes turning blue. I still suffer from the effect of the frostbite in my feet, losing balance when I try to run. They also ache painfully now and then, which reminds me of that past, causing me to feel terror and grief.”  (New Focus International)

At Panmunjeom, south of the DMZ, a visitor is watching video footage of a political prison camp in North Korea.