| Reeducation facility no. 12 | |
|---|---|
| Chosŏn'gŭl | 제12호 교화소 |
| Hancha | 第十二號敎化所 |
| McCune–Reischauer | che-12[sibi]-ho kyohwaso |
| Revised Romanization | je-12(sibi)-ho gyohwaso |
Chongori concentration camp is a reeducation camp in North Korea.
Contents |
The camp is located near Chongori (Chosŏn'gŭl: 전거리; MR: Chŏn’gŏri; RR: Jeongeori, also spelled Jongori), a little village in Musan-ri, Hoeryong county, at the road and railroad (about 2½ km northeast of Chongori station)[1] almost halfway between Hoeryong and Chongjin, Hamgyŏng-pukto province in North Korea. Chongori camp is situated at the end of a small valley 2.5 km (1.5 mi) southeast from the main valley in Pungsan-ri and Chongori.[2]
Chongori concentration camp is a large prison compound, around 350 m (1050 feet) long and 150 m (450 feet) wide. The main section is surrounded by an 8 m (26 feet) high wall, while the branch offices are surrounded with barbed wire and an electrified fence. In 2005 there used to be around 2000 prisoners, mostly usual criminals, but often with high penalties for desperate offences such as stealing food. They are guarded by around 300 prison guards with machine guns.[3] From 2006 on the number of prisoners increased very much,[4] as many defectors deported from China were arrested in Chongori camp.[5] Theoretically prisoners should be released after reeducation through labor and serving their sentence. But as the prison sentences are very long and the conditions are very harsh, many do not survive their prison sentences.
Main purpose of Chongori camp is to punish people for usual crimes or political crimes, e. g. illegal border crossing. But the prisoners are also used as slave workers, who have to do hard and dangerous work 14 hours a day.[6] There is a copper ore mine, a logging section and some smaller factories in the camp.[7]
The prisoners in Chongori concentration camp live in crowded, dirty, insect-infested rooms without heating, while there is just one washing room for 1000 prisoners.[8] Because of these horrible hygienic conditions, many prisoners die from infectious diseases - 190 prisoners died in the summer of 2003.[9]
The prisoners get only 140 grams of rice three times a day, while being forced to do hard slave labor such as logging with iron chains.[10] Often prisoners are killed [11] or crippled in work accidents, as they have to do dangerous work with primitive means.[12] Prisoners are so hungry, that they eat even grass and corn in cow faeces.[13] Lee Jun Ha estimates that around 30 to 40 people died from malnutrition, work accidents or torture each month and were burnt on a nearby mountain.[14]
The prisoners are regularly subject to beatings, torture and inhuman treatment, arbitrarily at the guard’s mercy.[15] In case a prisoner breaks a rule he is tortured and confined many days or weeks in a solitary cell, only 1 m² (3 feet square) large, where he could not stretch his legs.[16] Summary executions were carried out several times per year in case of escape attempts.[17]
Lee Jun Ha (2000–2005 in Chongori) was imprisoned, because he accidentally killed his uncle.[18]