North Korea prison camp probable website of ‘thousands’ of deaths, report suggests

Dec. 22 (UPI) — A jail camp in North Korea could have served as the burial ground for countless numbers of captives, in accordance to a new report from the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea in Washington.

The group’s results on North Korea’s Chungsan No. 11 Detention Facility, printed Monday, include satellite imagery evaluation of the 5-square-mile camp and particulars of ailments at the web-site, taken from defector testimony.

In accordance to HRNK, the facility continues to be operational and “very well taken care of” by North Korean specifications. Prisoners at Chungsan, a nonpolitical prison camp in South Pyongan Province, get the job done as compelled laborers engaged in agricultural and livestock actions.

The report also consists of estimates of the jail population. Satellite imagery analysis exhibits that it could be amongst at minimum 1,500 and 2,000, with “most likely ranges higher.”

“A previous prisoner who was held in just the camp all through the early 2000s states that the dwelling and performing disorders inside the camp have been extremely harsh,” with “as a lot of as 2,000 prisoner fatalities in the course of this previous prisoner’s 3-yr confinement inside the camp,” the report states.

Deaths could manifest when prisoners tried to flee or defied authority, analysts said.

Captives “have been reportedly not publicly executed as is standard at political prison camps.

“Rather, they had been reportedly tortured or secretly executed.”

Defectors mentioned a number of camp units elevated pigs. The pork was “reportedly completely used to feed the privileged courses inside the cash town of Pyongyang,” according to the report.

Other testimonies reveal about 2,000 prisoners both died or were being executed per year in the early 2000s. The bodies ended up “buried without tombstones” in a close by location identified as “flower mountain.”

Defectors in the South have condemned the alleged human rights abuses of the Kim Jong Un regime, but have been achieved with opposition from the South for some of their functions.

Seoul is centered on switching perceptions about recent coverage, like a new ban on anti-Pyongyang leaflets at the border.

Yonhap reported Tuesday that Seoul’s unification ministry is stepping up communication with the intercontinental local community about the ban. South Korean officers have said the new law is vital for citizen security around the DMZ.