Chongjin concentration camp (

Chosŏn'gŭl The Korean alphabet, known as Hangul, . Hangul may also be written as following South Korea's standard Romanization. ( ) in South Korea and Chosŏn'gŭl in North Korea, is the modern official writing system for the Korean language. The let ...

: , also spelled Ch'ŏngjin) is a

labour camp A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...

North Korea North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the northern half of the Korean Peninsula and shares borders with China and Russia to the north, at the Yalu (Amnok) and T ...

for political prisoners. The official name is

Kwan-li-so North Korea's political penal labor colonies, transliterated ''kwalliso'' or ''kwan-ri-so'', constitute one of three forms of political imprisonment in the country, the other two being what David Hawk translated as "short-term detention/for ...

(Penal-labour colony) No. 25. Satellite images show a major expansion of the camp after 2010.

Location

The camp is located in the city of

Chongjin Chŏngjin (; ) is the capital of North Korea's North Hamgyong Province (함경북도) and the country's third largest city. It is sometimes called the ''City of Iron''. History Prehistory According to archaeological findings near the lower ...

in the North Hamgyong province of

. It is situated in Suseong district (Susŏng-dong) of Songpyong-guyok, around northwest of the city center and west of Susŏng River (Susŏngch'on).

Description

Chongjin camp is a lifetime prison. Like the other political prison camps it is controlled by the state security agency. But while the other camps include many vast prison-labour colonies in remote mountain valleys, Chongjin camp is only one big prison building complex similar to the reeducation camps. The camp is around 500 m (1500 ft) long and 500 m (1500 ft) wide, surrounded by high walls and fences, and equipped with guard towers. The number of prisoners is estimated to be between 3000“Political Prison Colonies in North Korea: System and Repercussions”, 9th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees, Melbourne, March 20, 2009 (page 27)
/ref> and 5000.

Purpose

The main purpose of the camp is to isolate political prisoners from society. The prisoners are exploited for hard labour to be performed in the prison factories. Popular North Korean consumer products like Kalmaegi bicycles are manufactured by prisoners using hand tools.

Human rights situation

Ahn Myung-chul (a former prison guard in

Hoeryong concentration camp Hoeryong concentration camp (or Haengyong concentration camp) was a prison camp in North Korea that was reported to have been closed in 2012. The official name was Kwalliso (penal labour colony) No. 22. The camp was a maximum security area, comp ...

) described Chongjin camp as a top-level political prisoner camp, therefore harsh conditions can be assumed.

Camp expansion

Detailed analysis of satellite images shows a major expansion of the camp perimeter in 2010. The size of the camp increased 72 percent, from to now . Along the new fence line, 17 additional guard posts were erected. In the eastern part of the new perimeter, several new buildings were erected from 2011 to 2013, possibly to be used as prisoner housing.

Prisoners (witnesses)

There are no first-hand witness accounts on the camp; however, there are some reports by North Korean defectors on prisoners in Chongjin camp. Lim Kook-jae, a South Korean abducted to North Korea in 1987 aboard the Dong Jin 27, died in Chongjin camp, according to a human rights organization.“Abducted South Korean Dies in a North Korean Political Prison Camp”, The Daily NK, October, 14 2008
/ref> Many pastors and presbyters, dissident Korean-Japanese, and people expelled from Pyongyang with their families are detained in Chongjin camp, according to the 9th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees.

References

External links

Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
– Overview on North Korean Prison Camps with Testimonies and Satellite Photographs
Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB)
- Political prison camps in North Korea Today
Digital Globe Analytics
- Detailed satellite image analysis of North Korea's Camp No. 25
Korea Institute for National Unification
- White paper on human rights in North Korea 2011
One Free Korea
- Camp 25 at Chongjin (with satellite photographs)
The Daily NK: The Hub of North Korean News
– News about North Korea and human rights {{DEFAULTSORT:Chongjin Concentration Camp Concentration camps in North Korea North Hamgyong