The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
D. Human Rights Violations Inside Labor Training Camps
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Correctional Center has completed its expansion work. As part of the so-called “society clean-up campaign” launched in October of 2006, a great number of law-breakers have been rounded up and the correctional centers were overflowing with inmates as a result.
In response, the Organization Guidance Bureau of the Central Party decided to expand the Gaechon Correctional Center. Soldiers were mobilized in the expansion work and it was completed in about two months, the report said.161
D. Human Rights Violations Inside Labor Training
II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
more physically demanding than at a correctional center. Most defectors testified that the intensity of labor at the training camp is much higher than at the correctional center, though the service term in the former is shorter. Defector XXX testified that “it would be better to serve a few years at a correctional center; because long-term inmates serve there, they do not put you through harsh training. But labor-training centers and collection points are very hard because the terms there are much shorter, so they put you through harsh treatment. There’s no mercy, and they treat people like dogs.”162
The following is a collection of testimonies describing the types of forced labor inside various labor-training camps.
- Defector XXX testified that she was mobilized for rice- planting work while detained in the labor-training camp in April 2007.163
- Defector XXX testified that her sister was deported from China in 2006 and detained in the camp for six months.
She said male inmates would cut the timber, trim the branches and load them on trucks, and female detainees were mobilized for hard labor such as hauling the timber downhill for loading.164
- A defector testified that when she was detained in Hweryong Labor-Training Camp in October 2004 a group of seven female inmates had to haul cement blocks, shovel, load sand on trucks, and do other hard manual labor. If they failed to finish the workload within the assigned time, more workload would be added, and if anyone tried to take an
162_ NKHR2009000015 2009-03-17.
163_ NKHR2008000001 2008-07-17.
164_ NKHR2008000009 2008-08-07.
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unauthorized break, the supervising inmate would kick her up.165
- There is no pre-assigned work. The inmates are mobilized for various work assignments as requested by the city or county authorities, particularly the dirty work and hard labor. For example, the inmates would be put into earth- moving work at apartment building construction sites, rice-planting work, tree-cutting, and so on.166
- A defector testified that she had heard from her co-worker’s sister in 2007 that some labor-training camp inmates had to work on a potato farm in Buyoon, Chongjin City. The inmates had to work 16 hours a day on a ration of 300 grams of corn. In addition, they were constantly beaten.167 - Another person testified that a labor-training camp was
headquartered in Hweryong, and so the inmates were mobilized for all hard work requested by the Hweryong City. The inmates had to move around from work-site to work-site, sleeping in temporary quarters and working long and hard hours.168
- At a labor-training camp in Chongjin City, the security agent in charge put the inmates in a unit assigned to earn foreign currency. The unit had to pay bribes to the agent. If the unit were short-handed it would ask the training-camp for additional manpower, for which the unit had to pay the camp for the support -- all illegal.169
165_ NKHR2008000010 2008-08-08.
166_ NKHR2008000012 2008-08-14; NKHR2008000012 2008-08-13.
167_ NKHR2008000017 2008-09-04..
168_ NKHR2008000010 2008-08-08.
169_ NKHR2008000024 2008-11-18.
II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
From these examples, it is clear that some security agents would provide manpower to the units engaged in foreign currency earning and illegally make money in collusion with the units.
- If a workplace needed more workers for a construction project, they would put in a request to the People’s Security Agency, and the agency would dispatch inmates detained at collection points; the company would in turn pay money to the agency.170
- A defector testified that the labor at a labor-training camp mainly consists of temporary duties at various work places which are in need of workers. The Inspector’s Section would step in to pressure the camp to dispatch workers for hard labor. The inmates were also mobilized for the construction of a “Bean Milk Facility” funded by international assistance groups to help improve children’s nutrition.171
- A defector testified that he was detained in a labor-training camp in April 2003. He was mobilized for agricultural work and tree-cutting. The camp officials were known to earn money through this process.172
In connection with the Ranam Labor Training Camp, defect- or XXX testified as follows: The Ranam Labor Training Camp is located in Ranam District, Chongjin City, North Hamkyung Province. About 50 inmates were housed there, including some violent criminals, those charged with illegal border crossing, and those who were absent from work without leave. About 30 were male and 20 female. Those absent from work without leave had
170_ NKHR2009000024 2009-04-20.
171_ NKHR2009000031 2009-05-12.
172_ NKHR2009000009 2009-02-19.
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to serve a term equal to the duration of their absence from work (i.e., one month of service for one month’s absence from work, etc.).
Meals in the camp consisted of about 450 grams a day, or 150 grams per meal. The regulation amount was 100 grams per meal, but the accounting officer (“guide”) provided a little extra in view of the heavy daily workload. The inmates were mobilized as laborers for various projects such as pipeline repair work, building construction, and housing projects. About 20 out of 50 inmates would bribe the officials for an early release or for lighter assignments like mess hall duties.173 Defector XXX who had served at No. 55 Labor Training Camp testified that about 500 grams of food would be served in three meals, each meal consisting of corn and cabbage soup.
Inmates would wake up at 5:30 a.m., and working hours were from 8:00 to 12:00 in the morning and 2:00 to 5:30 in the afternoon.
Except for peak farming seasons, daily work would be over by about 6:00 p.m.174 At Onsung Training Camp, inmates would wake up at 6:00 a.m. and go to bed at 10:00 p.m. They worked eight hours a day, with meals served at 7, 12 and 6 o’clock. They were usually put to hard labor from 8:00 to 12:00 in the morning and 1:00 to 5:00 in the afternoon. In the evening hours, they would attend community living and self-criticism sessions. Meals consisted of about 570 grams of steamed corn and cabbage soups divided into three meals. Defector XXX testified that in 2005 he was detained in a labor-training camp. He was given some corn and white beans there. Compared to the North Korean camp, the treatment at the Thai Immigration Bureau Detention Camp was extremely good.
With this level of treatment, he thought at the time, he could live
173_ Good Friends, “North Korea Today,” No. 11 (Dec. 12, 2005).
174_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Mar. 17, 2007.
II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
there for not 10 years but 100 years.175
Labor training camps are said to provide meals, but many inmates die due to malnutrition and physical exhaustion from the heavy and intensive workload. Many defectors have testified that this phenomenon persisted until very recently.
- A defector testified that he personally saw a 22-year-old woman starve to death in November 2004 at Onsung Labor Training Camp.176
- A defector testified that he personally saw a 25-year-old man, XXX, starve to death in 2005 at the labor-training camp in the Pohang District.177
- A defector testified that in October 2005 when he was detained in a labor-training camp in Hweryong he saw a man in his late thirties getting released early for reasons of ill-health.178
According to defector testimonies, numerous deaths have occurred as a result of a combination of beatings and starvation.
- A defector testified that when he was detained in the No.
55 Hamhung Labor-Training Camp he saw workers carry in dozens of corpses that had died from starvation. They buried them all in the same place.179
- A defector testified that at a labor-training camp where he was detained in 2005 two children died from malnutrition and illness. Even though they were ill, the guards did not send them to the hospital but just abandoned them to die
175_ NKHR2009000028 2009-04-28.
176_ Ibid.
177_ Ibid.
178_ NKHR2008000010 2008-08-08.
179_ NKHR2009000011 2009-03-03.
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because they had been caught twice attempting to flee. No one was held responsible for these deaths.180
- A defector testified that a woman died at a training-camp in 2005 due to malnutrition, and they discarded her body in a goat sty in the camp.181
- A defector testified that her sister’s husband, XXX, was killed by beating inside a labor-training camp in January 2008.182
From these testimonies, it is quite clear that there are nu- merous victims of beatings and starvation, and deaths occur due to complications from both.
- A defector testified that Kwak XX, who was a co-inmate in Section 2 of No. 55 Training Camp, ran away from the camp in late August, 2002. She was brought back in late September and severely beaten by the security guards.
Subsequently, she was unable to eat well, frequently moaning and groaning. She eventually died.183
- A defector testified that while he was detained in Onsung Labor-Training Camp in 2004, his fellow inmate XXX lost his eyesight when he was beaten by fellow worker with a club.184
Defector XXX testified that he was detained for about a month and a half at a labor-training center, but he was not beat up by fellow detainees or others in the center after Kim Jong
180_ NKHR2009000028 2009-04-28.
181_ NKHR2009000041 2009-06-23.
182_ NKHR2009000065 2009-11-10.
183_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Mar. 17, 2007.
184_ NKHR2009000057 2009-09-22.
II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
Il announced his special instructions. However, North Korean defectors have testified that “group beatings” and inhuman treatment continue to persist in all North Korean detention camps today, often producing false and forced confessions from detainees.185
Human rights violations on female inmates in the labor- training camps appear to be very frequent, including sexual harassment, hard labor for the pregnant women, forced abortions, and the like.
- In the fall of 2006, there were many cases of sexual ha- rassment on young female inmates in the Ranam District Labor-Training Camp. The situation was reported to the central authorities, and inspections were conducted on the camp. However, local authorities quickly took necessary corrective measures in advance and replaced the camp director, thus avoiding harsh reprimand from the central authorities.186
- A woman forcibly repatriated from China was serving in the Buryong Labor-Training Camp. In 2004 she told him (a physician who later defected and was now testifying) that she got an abortion because the pregnancy was too hard to maintain. He also testified that he had seen several cases of late-term natural abortions (at about sixth months of pregnancy), because work assignments for the pregnant women had been too heavy and their nutritional level too poor. However, he testified that the training-camp had never asked him to perform forced abortions.187
185_ Testimony of defector XXX during an interview in Seoul on Jan. 20, 2006.
186_ NKHR2008000008 2008-08-01.
187_ NKHR2008000005 2008-07-22.
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- A defector testified that a 24-year-old woman named XXX was serving at a training-camp. One night at about 11 pm she was summoned outside; she came back at about 1 am crying in front of our witness. She said the guards raped her because she was good-looking.188
- A defector testified that her elder sister was serving at the Wonsan Labor Training Camp in 2006, and a security agent struck her elder sister even though she was pregnant at the time. He even kicked her in the stomach.189
- A defector testified that in 2001 at Rajin Training Camp for Women, a 28-year-old woman named XX was brought in. She was pregnant, and a guard shouted at her, “Bitch!
Aren’t you pregnant with a Chinese baby?” The agent then forced on her the same level of hard labor as the other inmates.190
- A defector testified that in 2005 and 2006 they used to force abortions on female inmates who came in pregnant.
If a woman was pregnant with a ‘Korean baby’ or if the training camp physical exam showed she had tuberculosis, she would be sent home. If she was pregnant with a Chinese baby, they would force an abortion.191 - A defector testified that in September 2001 at a training
camp where she was detained there were many pregnant inmates. The guards dragged them out and forced them to do hard work even though they were pregnant. Even inmates who were 6 or 7 months pregnant had to work
188_ NKHR2009000025 2009-03-30.
189_ NKHR2009000070 2009-11-18.
190_ NKHR2009000025 2009-03-30.
191_ NKHR2009000032 2009-05-19.
II. The Reality of Civil and Political Rights
and run just like other inmates.192