Camp 16, North Korea Prison for Worked to Death
Camp 16, North Korea Prison for Worked to Death
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PYONGYANG - Since death of his tyrannical father in 2011, North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un has by all measures proven himself worthy of the family name.
Like his dad, the 32 year old has his critics purged and vast command structures suspected of being disloyal either murdered or imprisoned. But nothing strikes more fear in the hearts of those who cross him as “Camp 16” – the country’s most secretive political prison.
Located deep in the harsh mountainous terrain in the country’s north, government ministers and the country’s most dangerous dissidents are among the 20,000 population.
In contrast to the country’s “re-education camps”, those inside the Stalinist gulag face no prospect of release and will be quite literally worked until they drop dead.
Very little is known about the camp because not a single person is known to have survived an escape attempt. What we do know is it is surrounded by a 75mile network of guard fences, foot patrols and off road vehicle trains.
Interspersed along this track are 35 sentry towers are filled with machine gun-welding guards who have been ordered to massacre anybody fleeing.
Any starving escapees who have managed to avoid these man-made obstacles are thought to have perished in the wilderness surrounding it.
![Camp 16, North Korea Prison for Worked to Death]()
At 216 square miles, it is three times the size of Washington DC and is off the country’s main power grid, the Committee for in Human Rights North Korea (HRNK) reported.
The massive camp in contained within a valley and is surrounded by harsh mountainside, a natural barrier that makes escape almost impossible
This satellite image identifies a section of inmate housing and agricultural fields in the frozen wilderness. Inside, prisoners are divided into three “towns” according to their security risk and their security rating. Satellite images show it is expanding in size under Kim’s bloody reign, a likely consequence of a growing jail population.
According to the recent HRNK report, there is a fish farm on site, as well as agriculture fields, logging operations, a power plant and mining. It is these industries that the 20,000 inmates are forced to work in for up to 20 hours a day.
Afterwards, they must attend “ideology struggle sessions” where they are encouraged to state each others’ flaws and beat those who fail the group.
Located just outside the camp’s perimeter is Punggye-ri, the underground site of the country’s four nuclear tests. It is rumoured slaves from nearby Camp 16 were used to build the structure in the 1980s under Kim Jong-il.
According to South Korean media, a former inmate of Camp 22 once claimed prisoners from Camp 16 were used on the project.
It was considered a “source of fear” among the inmates, and “once taken there, no-one came back alive”, he was reported to have said.
Amnesty International told The Sun Online there almost no information was available on the notorious Camp 16. However, it was believed to operate in a similar manner to a handful of other political prisons in the country.
“Amnesty believes these camps have been in operation for approaching 60 years, yet only three people have ever been known to have escaped and a massive 40 per cent will die of malnutrition. Every former inmate Amnesty spoke to had witnessed at least one public execution," Amnesty International Director, Kate Allen said.
“The minimum time in there is a week, but Amnesty has heard accounts of people being locked in there for eight months solid. In reality though, they are worse off than animals. A significant proportion of those sent to the camps don’t even know what crimes that are accused of. And thousands more are sent there under ‘guilt by association’ – often sons and daughters of political prisoners. These camps are a stain on civilised society,” he added.
Harrowing tales have emerged from those who have escaped from similar prisons, such as Camp 15. Starving inmates would often catch and eat snakes or rats, or even pig feed, an inmate told Amnesty International, adding she once ate corn kernels she spotted in cow dung.
Those caught escaping are often hung or shot in front of the other inmates, though in some instances they are beaten to death.
Reports have emerged of women being raped by guards before being “disappeared”, while others are beaten to death with hammer blows for minor infractions.
Like his dad, the 32 year old has his critics purged and vast command structures suspected of being disloyal either murdered or imprisoned. But nothing strikes more fear in the hearts of those who cross him as “Camp 16” – the country’s most secretive political prison.
Located deep in the harsh mountainous terrain in the country’s north, government ministers and the country’s most dangerous dissidents are among the 20,000 population.
In contrast to the country’s “re-education camps”, those inside the Stalinist gulag face no prospect of release and will be quite literally worked until they drop dead.
Very little is known about the camp because not a single person is known to have survived an escape attempt. What we do know is it is surrounded by a 75mile network of guard fences, foot patrols and off road vehicle trains.
Interspersed along this track are 35 sentry towers are filled with machine gun-welding guards who have been ordered to massacre anybody fleeing.
Any starving escapees who have managed to avoid these man-made obstacles are thought to have perished in the wilderness surrounding it.
At 216 square miles, it is three times the size of Washington DC and is off the country’s main power grid, the Committee for in Human Rights North Korea (HRNK) reported.
The massive camp in contained within a valley and is surrounded by harsh mountainside, a natural barrier that makes escape almost impossible
This satellite image identifies a section of inmate housing and agricultural fields in the frozen wilderness. Inside, prisoners are divided into three “towns” according to their security risk and their security rating. Satellite images show it is expanding in size under Kim’s bloody reign, a likely consequence of a growing jail population.
According to the recent HRNK report, there is a fish farm on site, as well as agriculture fields, logging operations, a power plant and mining. It is these industries that the 20,000 inmates are forced to work in for up to 20 hours a day.
Afterwards, they must attend “ideology struggle sessions” where they are encouraged to state each others’ flaws and beat those who fail the group.
Located just outside the camp’s perimeter is Punggye-ri, the underground site of the country’s four nuclear tests. It is rumoured slaves from nearby Camp 16 were used to build the structure in the 1980s under Kim Jong-il.
According to South Korean media, a former inmate of Camp 22 once claimed prisoners from Camp 16 were used on the project.
It was considered a “source of fear” among the inmates, and “once taken there, no-one came back alive”, he was reported to have said.
Amnesty International told The Sun Online there almost no information was available on the notorious Camp 16. However, it was believed to operate in a similar manner to a handful of other political prisons in the country.
“Amnesty believes these camps have been in operation for approaching 60 years, yet only three people have ever been known to have escaped and a massive 40 per cent will die of malnutrition. Every former inmate Amnesty spoke to had witnessed at least one public execution," Amnesty International Director, Kate Allen said.
“The minimum time in there is a week, but Amnesty has heard accounts of people being locked in there for eight months solid. In reality though, they are worse off than animals. A significant proportion of those sent to the camps don’t even know what crimes that are accused of. And thousands more are sent there under ‘guilt by association’ – often sons and daughters of political prisoners. These camps are a stain on civilised society,” he added.
Harrowing tales have emerged from those who have escaped from similar prisons, such as Camp 15. Starving inmates would often catch and eat snakes or rats, or even pig feed, an inmate told Amnesty International, adding she once ate corn kernels she spotted in cow dung.
Those caught escaping are often hung or shot in front of the other inmates, though in some instances they are beaten to death.
Reports have emerged of women being raped by guards before being “disappeared”, while others are beaten to death with hammer blows for minor infractions.
(rnz)
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