NEW NGO REVEALS ABUSE AT PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN DPRK

UNCLAS SEOUL 002306 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREF PHUM PGOV PROP KTIP KS KN SUBJECT: NEW NGO REVEALS ABUSE AT PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN DPRK PRISON CAMPS ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: At the November 18 inaugural gathering of Campaign for North Korean Freedom (NK Freedom),Yonsei University Associate Professor of Law Hong Seong-phil explained that the group's founding was based on the notion that defectors needed to take ownership of the North Korean human rights cause. Defectors who had escaped from "complete control" prisons provided harrowing accounts of how people and babies were treated. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) Yonsei Professor Hong Seong-phil explained at the November 18 initial gathering of the Campaign for North Korean Freedom that among North Korean defectors in South Korea, there were 30-40 who had been political prisoners in the North. Of these, only four had been imprisoned at "complete control" facilities in the DPRK, and all were members of the NK Freedom NGO. Of the two types of prison camps in the North, relatively few ever survived conditions at "complete control zone" facilities, as indicated by the very small number of defectors in South Korea who had escaped from them. Other speakers underscored that "not even corpses can escape the complete control zone." These "complete control zone" prison camps have been in existence for four generations and held some Japanese-Koreans in the 1970s, they said. -------------- Camp 18 and 25: Now Made Known To Public, After Witness' Last Family Member Arrives in South Korea -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Performing as interpreter during a PowerPoint presentation featuring satellite photos of several prison camps, Professor Hong stated that two of these camps, Numbers 18 and 25, had hitherto been unknown to the outside world. Lim Jong-soo, a 43-year-old "living witness" to conditions in the former, described being held first at Camp 11, and then at near by Camp 18 in Pyungnam-Kyecheon for a combined total of 22 years. Camp 18 held 100,000 prisoners, seven train stations and eight schools with 5,000 students each. The schools provided only very rudimentary education, that which might be useful when performing work in the camp. There were three groups of detainees, two of them being so-called "settlers" and "golamin" -- the latter those who had killed a party official or had come from Japan. The camp was situated near a river in which there was an island that had been used for public and private executions -- usually about 20 each autumn. There were trees on the opposite side of the rivers. Sometimes children would drown crossing to gather nuts. ¶4. (SBU) Lim had lived in the prison camps with his family from 1967 to 1989. His father had been a prisoner of war captured by the North. His mother and three siblings were also in the camps. Lim was placed in the re-education area of the camp and was unable to see or interact with the "settlers" and "golamin." For food, his family received rationed corn powder mixed with cabbage. Prison officers took food from the fields, but others had to pay for this. Officers may have had pork, too, as pigs were nearby. Lim's family suffered from constant hunger and often ate a certain poisonous plant as a result. This ended up killing Lim's brothers and blinding Lim. Lim's mother did forced labor. She was killed in an accident by a train moving in reverse. ¶5. (SBU) At the camp school, Lim was taught that his suffering was the fault of his parents and consequently grew to hate them. Another prisoner similarly educated buried his father alive. No one recorded such deaths in "complete control" areas; people just vanished. Lim had a vague recollection of other children having marks on their bellies. His parents told him this was a brand, and he now thinks it was to mark the children as slaves. -------------- Camp 14, 22 and 25 -------------- ¶6. (SBU) A second escapee pointed out features on a satellite photo of Camp 14: a coal mine, pig farm (meat reserved for party officials and guards),adjacent houses holding three families each, a village surrounded by electric fencing, and a public execution space. As in Camp 18, executions were usually held in the fall. Camp 14 schools likewise provided only the most basic education. ¶7. (SBU) NK Freedom Representative An Myeong-cheol, formerly a guard at "complete control" described Camp 22 in Hambuk-Hweryong as "medium-sized" among prison camps. He indicated the locations of a checkpoint, coal mine, and electric fence at that facility. Unlike other prisons, Camp 22 had a "Kim Il-sung" auditorium and guard headquarters. There were locations for both secret and public executions, he said. There was a dam nearby, which could flood the entire village if destroyed. There were plans to breach it and drown the prisoners if necessary, An said. Camp 25, made known for the first time at the North Korea Freedom inauguration gathering, was located in Chungjin-Soosung and inmates there produced bicycles. -------------- Camp 11, 15 and 16 -------------- ¶8. (SBU) According to a former resident of Camp 11 Lim Jong-soo, Camp 11 held about 5,000 detainees, with electric fences, a mine, and a logging area. Camp 11 was adjacent to Camp 16 in Hambook-Hwasung, newly discovered through the nearby 2006 North Korean nuclear test site. Camp 15 in Yoduk became more widely known to the outside world through a musical called "Yoduk Story," which opened in fall of 2006 in Seoul. -------------- -------------- Failed Escape To China: Interrogation of Female Prisoners -------------- -------------- ¶9. (SBU) Asking that attendees refrain from photographing her, 42-year-old Lee Jun-shim (protect) shared her prison experiences and those of other female defectors she has counseled. Born in Pyongyang in 1967 and a 10-year veteran of the North Korean military, Lee left the military as a second lieutenant in 1992, got married, and moved to Kaesong, but then fell on hard times. Having no food, Lee and her two children wandered the countryside with no destination as "hunger orphans", eventually making it to Hyesan and crossing into China. Hunted by Chinese security, Lee and her children hid on a rooftop once for seven hours until they were discovered. Turned over to North Korean authorities, Lee was subjected to one and a half months of interrogation by the DPRK National Security Agency. ¶10. (SBU) Upon entry into prison, Lee said, prison officials separated the women by age, herding those under ten into one room and separating out those under 16 from those remaining and lining them up. Women in their 20's were told to remove their clothing in full view of the male guards and subjected to various humiliations, including being forced to exercise in that state. Many of the women who had been in China had hidden money in body cavities. Some confessed to this. Those who did not were searched, sometimes with sticks or soap. Some were given laxatives. ¶11. (SBU) Prison officials subjected the women to other forms of torture as well, Lee said. They hit their fingers with a glass ruler, causing the joints to disconnect. They would interrogate women near stoves so that they could pour boiling water on them or burn them with the hot stove pipe. Lee's own body still bore the scars of such treatment, she said. -------------- Interrogation of Pregnant Prisoners -------------- ¶12. (SBU) Pregnant women were also separated from the others. Caressing their bellies, guards would ask how many months pregnant the women were, but the women were fearful of a sudden kick to the stomach. Security personnel would inject the women with rivanol, inducing labor and delivery within 24 hours. Some babies were born dead, others still moving, but all would be wrapped in paper and discarded. Prison authorities extended no assistance to the women after their deliveries. They were left swollen and bleeding in very unhygienic surroundings. A defector now living in Incheon, Lee said, had been imprisoned when she was nine-months pregnant and given an injection. Guards put her stillborn baby in the women's bathroom so that she would see it again and again. ¶13. (SBU) As Lee had previously been in the military, she was assigned to care for camp orphans. She was still constantly hungry, though, and conditions were as unsanitary as ever. On one occasion, one of the orphans fell ill. She was allowed to take the child to a hospital and managed to escape, fleeing again to China. Once there she was captured again with her children and sold, she for 5,000 yuan and her children for 3,000 yuan each (five and three years old). As with much of what she has gone through, Lee said she has learned through her work with other female defectors that many have experienced similar exploitation and abuse. Lee arrived in the ROK in March 2007. She lives and works in the Jeolla province, assisting other North Korean defectors in her region. ¶14. (U) Media representatives from AP, Economist, two Japanese television stations, and other NGO groups attended. STEPHENS