North Korea's Gulags

[Hellken 1,658]

North Korea's Gulags never feature in international news. After reading "Escape from Camp 14", the suffering, horrors, starvation, abuse, rape, and despair are beyond belief. I cannot even imagine that such places even exist.

What makes North Korea's Gulags a greater hellhole (minus mass exterminations) than the Nazi concentration camps or Soviet era gulags is that the camp rules are structured so that everyone is pitted against each other in order to survive. Fathers, mothers, and their children spy, steal, and snitch on each other under pain of death, which is unlike Nazi and Soviet concentration camps where prisoners develop mutual trust and help each other out. There is no sense of trust in a North Korean gulag. Concepts like forgiveness and even love are alien concepts.

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http://www.amazon.co...y/dp/0670023329

A New York Times bestseller, the shocking story of one of the few people born in a North Korean political prison to have escaped and survived.

North Korea is isolated and hungry, bankrupt and belligerent. It is also armed with nuclear weapons. Between 150,000 and 200,000 people are being held in its political prison camps, which have existed twice as long as Stalin's Soviet gulags and twelve times as long as the Nazi concentration camps. Very few born and raised in these camps have escaped. But Shin Donghyuk did.

In Escape from Camp 14, acclaimed journalist Blaine Harden tells the story of Shin Dong-hyuk and through the lens of Shin's life unlocks the secrets of the world's most repressive totalitarian state. Shin knew nothing of civilized existence-he saw his mother as a competitor for food, guards raised him to be a snitch, and he witnessed the execution of his own family. Through Harden's harrowing narrative of Shin's life and remarkable escape, he offers an unequaled inside account of one of the world's darkest nations and a riveting tale of endurance, courage, and survival.

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http://firefliesofho...in-in-geun.html

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Some of these prison camps are bigger than Los Angeles. Satellite images of the North Korean Gulags : http://freekorea.us/camps/

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

The ultimate (failed) totalitarian state. They make sure that the people can never rise up. Reminds me of some science fiction novels I have read where the state had such firm control that no one could have even a free thought. It shows the depths of human degradation that are possible. Even Adolph the Aryan would have had the decency to gas these people.

Because it is an internal matter and the rest of the world is essentially powerless. The only country that could intervene is China. China probably doesn't care, and even if they did, an invasion would only get them nuked. It would probably start World War III, which would be an ELE.

[samima 92]

Wow, That's Intense.

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

Wow, That's Intense.

Gus Defax, ma'am.

[Hellken 1,658]

The ultimate (failed) totalitarian state. They make sure that the people can never rise up. Reminds me of some science fiction novels I have read where the state had such firm control that no one could have even a free thought. It shows the depths of human degradation that are possible. Even Adolph the Aryan would have had the decency to gas these people.

Because it is an internal matter and the rest of the world is essentially powerless. The only country that could intervene is China. China probably doesn't care, and even if they did, an invasion would only get them nuked. It would probably start World War III, which would be an ELE.

China wouldn't intervene. It's already a known fact that it has been hunting down North Korean refugees for years. China has been throwing them back to North Korea where the poor souls will be put in a concentration camp, tortured, and executed along with their entire families. It's already the 21st century and this is still happening.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/feb/01/northkorea

Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag

A series of shocking personal testimonies is now shedding light on Camp 22 - one of the country's most horrific secrets

In the remote north-eastern corner of North Korea, close to the border of Russia and China, is Haengyong. Hidden away in the mountains, this remote town is home to Camp 22 - North Korea's largest concentration camp, where thousands of men, women and children accused of political crimes are held.

Now, it is claimed, it is also where thousands die each year and where prison guards stamp on the necks of babies born to prisoners to kill them.

Over the past year harrowing first-hand testimonies from North Korean defectors have detailed execution and torture, and now chilling evidence has emerged that the walls of Camp 22 hide an even more evil secret: gas chambers where horrific chemical experiments are conducted on human beings.

Witnesses have described watching entire families being put in glass chambers and gassed. They are left to an agonising death while scientists take notes. The allegations offer the most shocking glimpse so far of Kim Jong-il's North Korean regime.

Kwon Hyuk, who has changed his name, was the former military attaché at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. He was also the chief of management at Camp 22. In the BBC's This World documentary, to be broadcast tonight, Hyuk claims he now wants the world to know what is happening.

'I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying in the gas chamber,' he said. 'The parents, son and and a daughter. The parents were vomiting and dying, but till the very last moment they tried to save kids by doing mouth-to-mouth breathing.'

Hyuk has drawn detailed diagrams of the gas chamber he saw. He said: 'The glass chamber is sealed airtight. It is 3.5 metres wide, 3m long and 2.2m high_ [There] is the injection tube going through the unit. Normally, a family sticks together and individual prisoners stand separately around the corners. Scientists observe the entire process from above, through the glass.'

He explains how he had believed this treatment was justified. 'At the time I felt that they thoroughly deserved such a death. Because all of us were led to believe that all the bad things that were happening to North Korea were their fault; that we were poor, divided and not making progress as a country.

'It would be a total lie for me to say I feel sympathetic about the children dying such a painful death. Under the society and the regime I was in at the time, I only felt that they were the enemies. So I felt no sympathy or pity for them at all.'

His testimony is backed up by Soon Ok-lee, who was imprisoned for seven years. 'An officer ordered me to select 50 healthy female prisoners,' she said. 'One of the guards handed me a basket full of soaked cabbage, told me not to eat it but to give it to the 50 women. I gave them out and heard a scream from those who had eaten them. They were all screaming and vomiting blood. All who ate the cabbage leaves started violently vomiting blood and screaming with pain. It was hell. In less than 20 minutes they were quite dead.'

Defectors have smuggled out documents that appear to reveal how methodical the chemical experiments were. One stamped 'top secret' and 'transfer letter' is dated February 2002. The name of the victim was Lin Hun-hwa. He was 39. The text reads: 'The above person is transferred from ... camp number 22 for the purpose of human experimentation of liquid gas for chemical weapons.'

Kim Sang-hun, a North Korean human rights worker, says the document is genuine. He said: 'It carries a North Korean format, the quality of paper is North Korean and it has an official stamp of agencies involved with this human experimentation. A stamp they cannot deny. And it carries names of the victim and where and why and how these people were experimented [on].'

The number of prisoners held in the North Korean gulag is not known: one estimate is 200,000, held in 12 or more centres. Camp 22 is thought to hold 50,000.

Most are imprisoned because their relatives are believed to be critical of the regime. Many are Christians, a religion believed by Kim Jong-il to be one of the greatest threats to his power. According to the dictator, not only is a suspected dissident arrested but also three generations of his family are imprisoned, to root out the bad blood and seed of dissent.

With North Korea trying to win concessions in return for axing its nuclear programme, campaigners want human rights to be a part of any deal. Richard Spring, Tory foreign affairs spokesman, is pushing for a House of Commons debate on human rights in North Korea.

'The situation is absolutely horrific,' Spring said. 'It is totally unacceptable by any norms of civilised society. It makes it even more urgent to convince the North Koreans that procuring weapons of mass destruction must end, not only for the security of the region but for the good of their own population.'

Mervyn Thomas, chief executive of Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said: 'For too long the horrendous suffering of the people of North Korea, especially those imprisoned in unspeakably barbaric prison camps, has been met with silence ... It is imperative that the international community does not continue to turn a blind eye to these atrocities which should weigh heavily on the world's conscience.'

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from freekorea.us:

What a gigantic concentration camp! Easily dwarfs Auswitz.

  Edited July 15, 2012 by Hellken  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

If as reported it easily equals the NAZIs efforts. Now we see "crimes against humanity" here. This is not a matter for the UN, it is a matter for the human race. Perhaps Kim Jong-Un and his close cadre are unaware of this. They mayor doesn't always know what the town clowns are doing, but his family is beginning to look like a Hitler-like dynasty.

Clearly, China does not care what they do. This exercise in degradation must be stopped, but how?

[Hellken 1,658]

If as reported it easily equals the NAZIs efforts. Now we see "crimes against humanity" here. This is not a matter for the UN, it is a matter for the human race. Perhaps Kim Jong-Un and his close cadre are unaware of this. They mayor doesn't always know what the town clowns are doing, but his family is beginning to look like a Hitler-like dynasty.

Clearly, China does not care what they do. This exercise in degradation must be stopped, but how?

It will be hard for North Korea to deny the existence of these camps. They are the size of cities. They are much larger than the Nazi and Stalinist concentration camps and there are a lot of these all over the country if you view it on Google Earth. I am sure Kim Jong Un and everyone in North Korea knows they exist. They are too big to hide and anyone with GoogleEarth can see them. If they didn't North Koreans would have revolted decades ago. The camps keep people in fear.

Armed intervention won't work either since a nuclear World War III is very likely.

  Edited July 16, 2012 by Hellken  

[A Nonny Moose 8,261]

It is almost incredible except for the rather clear evidence. Maybe the only thing that can be done is to convince all of their "friends" to stop trading/talking to them. I think even humanitarian aid needs to be stopped.

Here we have the new barbarians.

  Edited July 16, 2012 by A Nonny Moose  

[hym 358]

If as reported it easily equals the NAZIs efforts. Now we see "crimes against humanity" here. This is not a matter for the UN, it is a matter for the human race. Perhaps Kim Jong-Un and his close cadre are unaware of this. They mayor doesn't always know what the town clowns are doing, but his family is beginning to look like a Hitler-like dynasty.

Clearly, China does not care what they do. This exercise in degradation must be stopped, but how?

Unless the current leader differs significantly from his predecessor, it is very likely that military force is the only option that will yield any results. Furthermore, the general rules of war would likely have to be thrown out in any major conflict with North Korea. There is no need to target non-combatants, but efficiently crippling the North Korean military and government would likely require targeting civilian infrastructure.

The question is: which devil would you rather live with?

[samima 92]

Wow, That's Intense.

Gus Defax, ma'am.

I'm not a ma'am. The A is for my last name.

[raja_indy14 8]

The Korean camps are not larger than Stalinist Gulags, which covered vast territories in Siberia. Norillag included Norilsk and Krasnoyarsk, which are hundreds of kilometres apart.

As for stopping humanitarian aid, I fail to see how precipitating a famine that could kill hundreds of thousands or even millions is preferable to the current situation. The regime survived the millions killed by the famine of the mid-1990s, how many would have to die before a similar crisis toppled the government now?

China may or may not care what they do. At times they have been seen to rebuke Pyongyang, although not necessarily for humanitarian reasons. What is clear is that they favour a communist ally on their doorstep rather than what they perceive to be an American puppet. The creation of a unified Korean republic under the auspices of Seoul is the last thing Beijing wants.