Haengyŏng concentration camp

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Korean spelling
Korean alphabet : 행영 제 22 호 관리소
Hanja : 行 營 第二十 二號 管理所
Revised Romanization : Haengyeong Je22ho Gwalliso
McCune-Reischauer : Haengyŏng Che22ho Kwalliso
Korean spelling
Korean alphabet : 회령 제 22 호 관리소
Hanja : 會 寧 第二十 二號 管理所
Revised Romanization : Hoeryeong Je22ho Gwalliso
McCune-Reischauer : Hoeryŏng Che22ho Kwalliso

The Haengyŏng Concentration Camp (also Haengyong ) is an assembly camp for political prisoners in North Korea . The inmates are forced to do lifelong forced labor . There is kin liability up to the third generation.

To the subject

The North Korean dictatorship gave the camp the official designation Kwan-li-so (prison labor camp) No. 22 , whereby Kwan-li-so translated roughly means: internment camp for lifelong accommodation of political opponents . The North Korean storage system has existed for over 50 years.

The camp is often referred to in the media as Haengyong Concentration Camp , also as Gulag Hoeryong (also Hoeryŏng or Hoiryong ), as a penal colony or forced labor camp , since most democratic states have a different conception of the term internment camp and the camps e.g. B. show some clear similarities to the concentration camps of the National Socialist dictatorship in the Third Reich .

location

The camp belongs to Hoeryŏng County , Hamgyŏng-pukto Province in North Korea . It begins about 10 kilometers northeast of the town of Hoeryŏng and extends in a wide area surrounded by smaller mountains, bounded to the south by the mountain Tŭrŭlbong (680 m). The western border runs parallel to the Tumen River at a distance of about 7–8 km , which forms the border with China here.

description

Haengyŏng Camp is designed as a lifelong penal colony from which there is no release. People classified as politically unreliable because of their social, ethnic or economic origin are brought here without trial with their family members of all ages. The camp includes the penal colonies Haengyŏng-ni, Naksaeng-ni, Saul-ri (also Saŭl-li), Jungbong-ni (also Chungbong-ni), Kulsan-ni (also Kulsal-li) and Namsok-ni. The administration of the camp with living quarters for the guards, some factories and the torture center is in Haengyŏng-ni. The other penal colonies mainly consist of prison barracks. The camp is surrounded by a high electric fence, with watchtowers at regular intervals. It is guarded by soldiers (an estimated 1000 people) with automatic weapons and dogs. The entrance gate on the road from Hoeryong and the fence with some watchtowers can be seen on satellite images. The camp is about 225 km². In total, around 50,000 prisoners live in the Haengyŏng camp. There were suddenly more when Camp No. 12 in Onsŏng was closed in 1989 (after an uprising with around 5000 prisoners shot) and Camp No. 13 in Jongsong in 1990 and many prisoners were brought here.

function

The camp serves the regime to lock up people classified as politically unreliable for life and to exploit them through hard physical labor. This work has to be done in Haengyŏng in agriculture and in the coal mine Jungbong (also Chungbong). There are minimum quotas for products such as potatoes , beans , hot peppers and cereals that must be adhered to.

Human rights violations

According to eyewitness reports, the prisoners have to do hard slave labor from morning to evening and then undergo humiliating rituals of criticism and self-criticism or ideological re-education and learn the speeches of Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il by heart. If the required work is not completely done, the prisoners will be beaten. If they break any other rule, they will be tortured. Many prisoners die as a result of torture or frequent accidents in the mine. The prisoners only get about 300 grams of grain a day. An estimated 1,500 to 2,000 people die of malnutrition each year , mostly children. The prisoners are completely at the mercy of their guards (e.g. two little girls were deliberately drowned or prisoners who were supposed to be escaping were shot by guards in order to get a reward). There are frequent executions ; B. after attempted escape or food theft by starving prisoners. The prisoners are emaciated to the bone and almost every third prisoner is crippled. Former guard Ahn Myong-chol regularly saw dead bodies after executions and torture.

Human trials

According to the testimony of the former camp commandant Kwon Hyuk, there are gas chambers in the camp in which prisoners are gassed for demonstration purposes. Kwon reports on the gassing of a family. Former guard Ahn Myung Chul reports that doctors from Chungbong-ri Hospital are testing their surgical techniques on prisoners. Ahn learned of numerous unnecessary surgeries and medical errors that killed or disabled prisoners. There is evidence that Lin Hun-hwa was brought to the camp for chemical warfare experiments .

Eyewitnesses

  • Ahn Myong-chol (1987–1994 in Haengyong) worked as a guard in the camp.
  • Kwon Hyok (1987–1990 at Camp 22) was a security officer at the camp. He sat down as a North Korean military attaché in Beijing .

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang Sofsky : North Korea's Gulag - Born in Hell, Fled from Hell. A boy born in the camp reports. In: welt.de . September 19, 2012, accessed August 29, 2020.
  2. ↑ The Hidden Gulag (2003 Edition) - Satellite imagery: Kwan-li-so No. 22 Haengyong Overview (page 113). (PDF; 4.6 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  3. ^ Report: North Korea Publicly Executes Christian Woman for Distributing Bible. In: foxnews.com. July 24, 2009, accessed April 28, 2019 .
  4. ↑ The Hidden Gulag - Satellite imagery: Kwan-li-so No. 22 Haengyong Headquarters (page 222). (PDF; 5.5 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  5. ↑ a b Article "Hoeryong Concentration Camp Holds 50000 Inmates", Chosun Ilbo, December 5, 2002 ( Memento of February 22, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Google Maps: Entrance gate with fence and watchtowers, as of August 12, 2009
  7. ↑ Article "North Korea's Hard Labor Camps" with Interactive Map, Washington Post, July 20, 2009
  8. ↑ a b c The Hidden Gulag: Kwan-li-so Political Panel Labor Colonies (section: Testimony Kwan-li-so No. 22 Haengyong) (pp. 77-78). (PDF; 5.5 MB) The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, accessed on September 21, 2012 .
  9. ↑ Article "5000 Prisoners Massacred at Onsong Concentration Camp in 1987", Chosun Ilbo, December 11, 2002 ( Memento of October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  10. ^ Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today . Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), 2011, ISBN 978-89-93739-16-9 , Chapter 3.2.5: Discipline Session, Ideology Study and Lectures , p. 239 (English, digitized version ( memento from February 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 3.6 MB ; accessed on December 12, 2018]). Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today ( October 19, 2013 memento in the Internet Archive )
  11. ^ A b Article, Former Guard Ahn Myong Chol: North Korean Prison Guard Remembers Atrocities, NBC News, Jan. 15, 2003
  12. ^ Pierre Rigoulot: Crime and Terror in North Korea. In: igfm.de. 1998, archived from the original on April 27, 2008 ; accessed on April 21, 2019 .
  13. ↑ Exiled to Hell . In: Der Spiegel . No. 25 , 1995 ( online ).
  14. ^ Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today . Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB), 2011, ISBN 978-89-93739-16-9 , Chapter 5.6: Disappearance , p. 507 (English, digitized version ( memento from February 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) [PDF; 3.6 MB ; accessed on December 12, 2018]). Political Prison Camps in North Korea Today ( October 19, 2013 memento in the Internet Archive )
  15. ↑ a b Revealed: the gas chamber horror of North Korea's gulag , The Guardian, February 1, 2004.
  16. ^ The testimony of An Myong-chol, an ex-guard at a political prisoners' camp in North Korea. Sadistic Experiments on Living Human Beings. In: Monthly Chosun Ilbo. March 1995, archived from the original on October 22, 2013 ; Retrieved June 20, 2012 .
  17. ↑ Satellite images show gulags silent operational in North Korea , The Telegraph, October 25, 2012 found.

Coordinates: 42 ° 32 ′ 16.7 ″  N , 129 ° 56 ′ 7.9 ″  E