20,000 North Koreans allegedly ‘disappear’ from labour colony
TOKYO — Tens of thousands of North Korean inmates of Camp No. 22, one of the regime’s most brutal labour colonies, have disappeared, according to a human rights group that is demanding an inquiry into their fate.
There are fears that up to 20,000 may have been allowed to die of disease or starvation in the run-up to the closure of the camp at the end of last year.
The suspicion has emerged after a report by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) detailing the situation in penal colonies as Kim Jong Un consolidated his power after taking over from his father, Kim Jong Il, who died in 2011. The Washingtonbased organization gleans information from defectors, including former guards and the occasional survivor of a prison camp, as well as examining satellite imagery.
It focused much of its attention on Camp No. 22, a vast compound sprawled across 2,000 square kilometres, bigger than twice the size of Toronto. The report discloses that two camps have been closed in the past year but that 130,000 individuals are still being held in penal labour colonies.
“Through this vast system of unlawful imprisonment, the North Korean regime isolates, banishes, punishes and executes those suspected of being disloyal to the regime,” the report states. “They are deemed ‘wrong-thinkers,’ ‘wrongdoers,’ or those who have acquired ‘wrong knowledge’ or have engaged in ‘wrong associations.’”
Few North Koreans have escaped from prison camps and to freedom outside the country, but those who have tell of terrible suffering. Inmates eat frogs, rats and pick corn kernels out of animal waste. Activists say that as many as 40 per cent die of malnutrition, while others succumb to disease, sexual violence, torture, abuse by the guards or are worked to death. Men, women and children work for up to 16 hours a day in dangerous conditions, often in mines or logging camps.