North Korea Prison Camps
In all of North Korea, people are being deprived of their basic human rights. Just like the concentration camps during World War II, North Korean leader Kim Jong un is sending political prisoners to brutal concentration camps all around the country. The system of prison camps is called the Kwan-li-so. There are six giant camps in North Korea with 200,000 people imprisoned (Omestad). In these prison camps, people are forced to work 14 hours a day. They are not paid and live off of a gram of corn powder a day. If some one is too sick to work, they do not get fed. Over 400,000 people have died in these gulags ("Never again? North Korea's gulag." ).
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What Happens in these Prison Camps?
In North Korea, labor is used to sustain the economy (UN: Seek Justice). People suffer from extreme famine. They have no idea why they are in these prison camps. If they asked someone, they are most likely executed or tortured. People suffer from beatings, get executed, experience extreme famine, slave style labor, babies are strangled, and pregnant women get salt water injections (“Torture, and Cannibalism in the DPRK.”).
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How do you end up here?
Anyone who has beliefs that are against the government is imprisoned in the camps. Some people do not even know why they are there. If they ask, they are killed or punished. Kim Jong Un considers "political crimes" anything from listening to South Korean music to making a phone call outside the country (Omestad). In the 1950s, a policy called the Three Generations Policy was created. This policy allows the country to punish not only the “criminal,” but also up to three generations of the individual’s family (Liberty in North Korea).
What Happens When You Try to Leave?
People who try to escape are either executed, hung, or severely punished. Even people that are lucky enough to escape across the Chinese border can be caught by the Chinese and sent back. China has sent back over 25,000 people this year ("Never Again"). Only a few people have actually escaped. They attempt to tell their stories to any one who will listen. They want to bring awareness to the human rights violations in North Korea.
When Did This Happen?
This issue is still going on in North Korea. It is still unknown when the prison camps started. North Korea still denies that they have any concentration camps even though there is sufficient evidence to prove otherwise.
[The political prison camps] have lasted twice as long as the Soviet Gulags and five times as long as the Nazi concentration camps." -Liberty in North Korea"