The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
B. Detention and Correctional Facilities
113 will handle crimes against the state and the people, and the People’s Security Agency will investigate ordinary criminal cases. The prose- cution handles other crimes involving administrative and economic projects and violations by law enforcement officials and agents (Criminal Procedure Law Art. 122).
•Correctional Centers
A Correctional Center is a type of prison facility in North Korea that is similar to a South Korean prison. The Ministry of People’s Security operates these centers and they house convicts who have committed serious crimes. Those sentenced to death or correctional prison labor penalties by the court are detained here, and there is at least one Correctional Center in each province.78The various crimes and types of detention stipulated in the Penal Code are outlined in <Table II-5>.
78_According to defectors, there are two correctional centers in Hamhung City, South Hamgyeong Province: a “correctional center for women” in Sapo District and a
“correctional center for men” in Hwasan District. In addition, well-known correctional centers in North Korea include Kaechon Correctional Center, Jonkori Correctional Center, and Susong Correctional Center. (Interview with defector XXX in Seoul on Jan. 19, 2008).
<Table II–4> Confinement Facilities
Type of crime Economic criminals and people found
Political criminals guilty of violent crimes
Supervising
Ministry of People’s Security State Security
institution Agency (Bureau No. 7)
Confinement Correctional Centers
facilities Labor Training Camps Concentration Camps Detention Facility
<Structure of the Jeongeori Correctional Center>
The bulk of testimonies regarding Correctional Centers origi- nate from the Jeongeori Correctional Center, located in the city of Hweryeong in North Hamgyeong Province. With the comple- tion of additional facilities in July 2006, the once all-male camp
<Table II–5> Types of Crimes and Corresponding Place of Detention Category Correctional centers Designated location
Unlimited term Limited term Disciplinary prison Labor Crimes against the Conspiracy to Conspiracy to overturn
state or the people overturn the state the state –
(14 types) (5 types) (14 types)
Inflicting deliberate
Crimes disruptive damage on weapons, Neglecting Neglecting to national defense ammunition, technical preparedness for preparedness for
systems combat equipment and wartime production wartime production (16 types) military installations (15 types) (10 types)
(1 type)
Crimes injurious to Taking or robbing state Stealing or robbing Stealing or robbing the socialist economy properties state properties state properties
(104 types) (6 types) (83 types) (76 types)
Crimes injurious to Smuggling historical
Importing and spreading Importing and socialist culture relics and smuggling
depraved culture spreading depraved (26 types) and selling of narcotics
(25 types) culture
(3 types) (16 types)
Collective disturbance; Interfering with official Crimes injurious to
Interfering with business; Creation or administrative systems –
official business dissemination of (39 types)
(30 types) false information (29 types) Crimes harmful to Acts of hoodlumism Acts of hoodlumism socialist collective life – or racketeering or racketeering
(20 types) (15 types) (18 types)
Crimes injuring the
Deliberate murder life or damaging the
or kidnapping Deliberate murder Excessive self-defense property of citizens
(4 types) (25 types) (13 types)
(26 types)
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115 accommodates both male and female.79This center is divided into five sections. Sections 1 and 3 are within the main facility. Sections 2 and 5 are less than a thirty minute walk down the valley from the main facility, in a single-story building. Section No. 4 is located at the top of a hill. The main facility houses both male and female inmates. Sections No. 2 and No. 5 are only for male inmates, and their interiors are illustrated in the following diagram.80
According to defector XXX, visitation rules at Jongori Correc- tional Center allowed for one visit per inmate every 6 months.81 When our witness was serving there in 2004, there was a “3-man open-watch rule” whereby one inmate was responsible for watch- ing three other inmates. These inmates in turn would each be responsible for watching three other inmates each, etc. In short, it was a system of mutual watchdog assignments. If any member of the 60 inmate team were to attempt flight, all the others would be subjected to punishment. All inmates were required to memorize 10 basic rules, and each rule had sub-rules, so there were at least 30 rules to remember. Also, there were 6 basic rules regarding security agents, which expanded into about 20 rules altogether.
79_NKHR2009000059 2009-09-26.
80_NKHR2011000180 2011-08-09.
81_NKHR2009000059 2009-09-26.
<Figure II–4> Interior of a facility at the Jeongeori Correctional Center
All inmates were required to memorize all these rules without mistakes.82
<Figure II-5> and <Figure II-6> show the details of the Jeongeori Correctional Center, as described in testimony by North Korean defector XXX.83
<Figure II–5> Operation of the Jeongeori Correctional Center
Name:No. 12 Jeongori Correctional Center
Location:Jeongeori, Hoeryeong, North Hamgyeong Province
Capacity:Despite its maximum capacity of 500 persons, about 1,300 persons were detained there as of 2010.
Inmates:Both male and female inmates
* The Jeongeori Correctional Center originally only detained male inmates, while female inmates were housed in Hamheung Correctional Center.
Due to increasing numbers of inmates, the Jeongeori Correctional Center began to accept female inmates in 2006.
* New buildings are under construction due to space shortages. There are currently three buildings.
Life Inside:Men work in the mines digging limestone and copper, while women produce wigs for export (under the direction of the Corrections Bureau) and engage in auxiliary work (primarily agriculture).
Commutation:Those who testify to crimes committed by persons outside the facility or conduct surveillance within the facility are eligible to commute their sentences by three months.
Restrictions:If an inmate commits a crime within the facility, the inmate responsible for watching him secretly reports it to the Security Office. If the report is determined to be true, the perpetrator is subject to solitary confinement or suspension of visitation rights for six months.
Visiting:Outsiders are only allowed to enter the sentry post. They are not allowed to access to the rest of the facilities.
Signage:There is no sign identifying the No. 12 Jeongeori Correctional Center.
82_NKHR2009000067 2009-11-12.
83_NKHR2011000175 2011-07-26.
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117 According to the testimony of North Korean defector XXX, female inmates were divided into work groups as follows: Group 1 ([potatoes), Group 2 (vegetables), Group 3 (corn), Group 4 (beans), Group 5 (stone gathering), Group 6 (wig making), Group 7 (clean- ing), Group 8 (firewood gathering), Group 9 (stock raising, including cows, sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks and etc.), Group 10 (making artificial eyelash) and a group for the gravely ill. Group
<Figure II–6> Overall View of the Jeongeori Correctional Center
4 no longer exists. Group 8, the firewood gatherers, does the heav- iest labor and is composed of those who have less than six months left to serve (excluding the gravely ill).84
<Newcomers’ Class in the Correctional Center>
New inmates in the Correctional Center are supposed to receive education in the first month of their prison terms prior to starting work. This is done via a program called the “Newcomers’
Class.”
– Defector XXX testified that in 2006, during his first month of detention at the Gaecheon Correctional Center, he attended the Newcomers’ Class and received education without doing any work.85
– Defector XXX also testified that, once detained in the Correctional Center, inmates are to receive education in the Newcomers’ Class for one month before beginning forced labor.86
– Defector XXX testified that detainees at the Jeongeori Correctional Center stay in the Newcomers’ Class for one month. In the class, inmates receive education on the regu- lations of the facility, hygiene, the preparation of prison uniforms, and ideology.87
84_NKHR2011000248 2011-12-20.
85_NKHR2010000015 2010-10-05; NKHR2011000102 2011-05-03.
86_NKHR2011000241 2011-11-22.
87_NKHR2011000248 2011-12-20.
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119
•Labor Training Camps
<The History and Current Situation of Labor Training Camps>
Labor Training Camps mainly house those convicted of theft or disruption of collective living and have capacities ranging from 500~2500 people. There is reportedly one such facility for each city and country in the country. Labor training camps were originally known as “education camps” and operated as temporary institutions, but they have evolved into permanent “Labor Training Camps.”
These camps are operated by an inspector and security officer of the county People’s Security Bureau, two members of the county level KWP Three-Revolution Team, one member of the county- level Youth League’s Committee on Deviant Youth, the commander of the Labor Training Camp, one guidance officer, and one rear guard worker.
The following are some descriptions of Labor Training Camps.
The No. 55 Hamheung Labor Training Camps was formerly an educational camp but became a Labor Training Camps in 2000.
The camp is composed of three sections. Section 1 is reportedly the main section, while Section 2 is for agriculture, and Section 3 is for mining.88 The camp is operated by a security officer of the County People’s Security Bureau, one training chief, and female staff member in charge of managing grain statistics.89 In addition, it is reported that an educational Labor Training Camps for youth has been established. According to North Korean defector XXX, a student named XXX was sent to the Nampo Educational Labor Training Camps for Youth for watching South Korean CD-Rs in
88_NKHR2009000011 2009-03-03.
89_NKHR2009000030 2009-05-07.
July 2003.90It was also reported that the military operates its own Labor Training Camps. Defector XXX testified that there were mili- tary Labor Training Camps in Dancheon and Haechang in the South Pyeongannam Province.91
There is also a testimony that reveals the existence of Labor Training Camps within the military. North Korean defector XXX testified that each military base operates its own Labor Training Camps and said that there was one in Gimchaek. Labor Training Camps within the military are operated by the General Staff Department of the North Korean People’s Army.92
<Disciplinary Labor, Disciplinary Prison Labor and Unpaid Labor>
Aside from the Penal Code, other laws also include disciplinary labor as a form of “punishment.” Article 18 of the Law on Sentences and Implementation of Decisions specifies the primary reason for suspension of sentences as follows: “Any gravely ill person serving disciplinary labor, or a pregnant woman in the period three months before to seven months after delivery of a baby, may be released early on a suspended sentence.” Article 40 (3) of the Prosecutory Supervision Law also specifies disciplinary labor.
Under the revised Penal Code of 2004, North Korea has established disciplinary prison labor as a new type of punishment.
Disciplinary prison labor is also defined as a type of penalty under the current Penal Code. Disciplinary prison labor is a form of punishment wherein the convict is sent off to a location for work details. Sentences range from six months to two years. For the convict, two days of disciplinary prison labor are supposed to
90_NKHR2009000036 2009-06-03.
91_NKHR2009000017 2009-03-24.
92_NKHR2011000213 2011-10-04.
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121 count as the equivalent of one day at a Correctional Center. Article 31 of North Korea’s Penal Code revised in 2004 stipulates, “The citizen’s fundamental rights are guaranteed throughout the period an inmate serves in disciplinary prison labor punishment.” This provision is fully congruous with the testimonies of North Korean defectors who have served in the Labor-Training Camps or Short- Term Labor Detention Facility. The “specified facility” mentioned in the Penal Code appears to mean a Labor Training Camp.
Two types of inmates are detained in Labor Training Camps:
ordinary criminals arrested for anti-socialist behavior and those sentenced to disciplinary prison labor. The latter category of inmates would get workloads that differed from those of ordinary inmates.
In other words, the camp would separately manage those with pre-determined service periods. From these testimonies, it is clear that when the Penal Code stipulates that those sentenced to serve disciplinary prison labor are to be detained in a Labor Training Camp. In short, two different types of inmates are detained in the Labor Training Camps, but those with prescribed service periods fall under separate management inside the camp.
Meanwhile, the Administrative Punishment Law outlines unpaid labor as one form of the punishments (Article. 14). Unpaid labor is a punishment applied to those who have committed serious crimes related to their work. They serve these sentences by working at difficult and laborious jobs, though in some special cases they can stay in their current work units. Sentences range from one to six months (Article. 16). According to North Korean defectors’
testimonies, unpaid labor as administrative punishment differs from disciplinary prison labor as a trials sentence in the following ways. While those sentenced to disciplinary prison labor work under surveillance, those laboring as administrative punishment
work without any surveillance and serve their terms at their current workplaces without being paid. Both forms of labor share certain features; because terms are less than six months, those convicted tend to perform difficult and laborious jobs, and they are not paid for their work. However, the locations of punishments differ;
administrative labor punishments are completed in workplaces, while disciplinary prison labor is done mainly in the Labor Train- ing Camps. Workers assigned to unpaid labor as an administrative punishment are able to commute to and from their workplaces, while those sentenced to disciplinary prison labor are detained for the duration of their terms. Among other things, unpaid work differs from the disciplinary prison labor in that it is usually related with work performance.93
93_Han Myung-sub, op. cit., pp. 198-199; Lee Gyu-chang and Jeong, op. cit., pp. 92-93.
<Table II–6> Forced Labor Punishments in North Korea
Unpaid Labor Disciplinary Labor Disciplinary Prison Labor Mainly in corrective
labor camps. Also in
Place Current workplaces other places such as Labor Training Camps factories, farms
and mines.
Commuting
Possible Impossible Impossible
to Work Service
1~6 months Less than 6 months 6 months~2 years Period
Pay Unpaid Unpaid Unpaid
Connection
Necessary Not clear Not always necessary with Job
Socialist Law-Abiding Sentencer Life Guidance
Prosecutor Court
Committee, Cabinet, Arbitration Agency
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123
<Current Situation of Disciplinary Prison Labor>
The punishments stipulated in the Penal Code are now imposed though trials - a significant development, as it could promote the protection of individual liberty and personal safety in North Korea.
Defector XXX was arrested in Yanji (Yeongil) City, China, on April 2, 2005. He had to undergo investigation and interrogation by the Onsung Security Agency from April 13 to May 11. He was detained in the provincial collection center at Nongpo-dong, Ranam District, Chongjin City from May 11 to July 14. From July 15 to September 20, he was held in the Musan-gun People’s Security Agency Detention Facility. He was tried on September 8 at the Musan-gun Court, which sentenced him to one year of disciplinary prison labor. He was then imprisoned in Section 3 of the Jeungsan Correctional Center from September 22 to November 2, at which point he was released as his disciplinary prison labor term was over. Although the term was for one year, for the local resident of Musan-gun, the calculation of the term was as follows: Each day at the Correctional Center was counted as the equivalent of two days of his disciplinary prison labor term, and counting of the term was said to start from the date of deportation. Consequently, he was released from the Jeungsan Correctional Center after serving only about 40 days at the center. At the end of his trial the Musan-gun Court judge said, “Serving in a Correctional Center is hard and painful. If anyone were to serve there long-term, he would almost certainly die or would be unable to support his family afterwards.
So the idea was that we had better release the inmates as soon as possible so that they could contribute to the welfare of the Musan- gun residents in general.” Participating in the trial process were one judge, one defense attorney, four mature men who participated in
the sentencing phase (of which one person testified he was from a committee), two indicted persons (of whom one was waiting for his turn), one guarantor, and two guards (one security agent and one sergeant). The judge and 3 of the 4 mature men left the court- room for 2~3 minutes, and when they returned, the judge said,
“The indicted person, XXX, is hereby sentenced to serve one year of disciplinary prison labor.” Following this, the judge said he would count one day served in the Correctional Center as two days of service in an effort to help out the local residents of Musan.
Defector XXX testified that he had to go through a pretrial in 2005 and received a formal trial before he was locked up in a Labor- Training Camp.94
However, detainment in Labor Training Camps without trial still continues as a general and routine practice. This practice persists even though a significant amount of time has passed since North Korea revised its Penal Code in 2004 requiring disciplinary prison labor to be imposed only through trials. Defector XXX testified that there is usually no trial for inmates sent off to Labor Training Camps because the penalty does not affect the status of one’s citizenship card. Detailed records of one’s service at Labor Training Camps are kept in the Safety Agency, but they do not appear on other documents that are necessary for normal activities.95Defector XXX testified that she was sent off to a labor-training camp without a trial.96
165 of the 245 articles contained in North Korea’s Penal Code mention punishment by disciplinary prison labor. Those convicted of more serious crimes are sentenced to a term of correctional
94_NKHR2009000018 2009-03-26.
95_NKHR2009000058 2009-09-24.
96_NKHR2009000065 2009-11-10.
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125 prison labor (at a normal Correctional Center). Without exception, the disciplinary prison labor penalty is not given for anti-state crimes. However, more than half of the crimes involving national defense will result in disciplinary prison labor. Disciplinary prison labor is the preferred sentence in almost all crimes involving economic and land management, environmental protection, labor administration and socialist culture. Most crimes involving distur- bances of social order are also punishable by labor training, and such penalties are rendered for newly declared crimes. In fact, the 39 articles in the code relating to new crimes mandate punish- ments exclusively in terms of disciplinary prison labor.
– Defector XXX testified that he and three of his friends had to serve six months in a Labor Training Camp for using drugs (bingdu) in December 2007.97
– Defector XXX testified that she was locked up in the Hweryong City Labor Training Camp for one month in June 2008 on charges of using mobile phones.98
– Defector XXX testified that when he was detained by the Hyesan City Security Agency in July 2008 he saw an inmate, XXX, being sent to a Labor Training Camp on charges of fortune-telling.99
•Short-Term Labor Detention Facility
Short-Term Labor Detention Facility are similar to Correc- tional Centers. Staff at collection centers investigate and detain various offenders for six months to a year—without trial or revo-
97_NKHR2008000029 2008-12-16.
98_NKHR2010000069 2010-10-26.
99_NKHR2010000089 2010-06-08.