North Korea Concentration Death Camps Growing, Satellite Photos Reveal
New pictures have emerged from the South Korea’s Unification Ministry which prove that North Korea’s death camps still exist.
Over 200,000 men, women and even children are known to be imprisoned in the concentration camps, though North Korea still denies the very existence of these camps.
The prisoners are taken for so-called general “political crimes”. Reports have indicated that more than half of all prisoners starve to death as they are forced to slave away and eat rats, frogs, snakes and insects to survive.
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Others reportedly die from diseases derived from the condition they are forced to live in. Guards often torture the prisoners to death while others are killed by a firing squad or public stoning.
The photos show in detail the Yodok camp, located in the mountains 70 miles from Pyongyang, which holds a quarter of these prisoners.
Kang, a former prisoner who was only 9 when he was sentenced there with his family, told CBN news, “We had no food. We eat anything we could get our hands on -- rats, snakes, frogs, insects. We just had to find a way to survive. Even though it happened a long time ago when I look at the satellite pictures I can still remember everything I saw and endured.”
He continued: “The camp definitely looks bigger. For example, new buildings for prison guards weren't there before. I can only assume that means there are more prisoners being held and therefore more security is needed.”
Kang escaped the camp in 1992 through China after 10 years in the prison. He wrote a book The Aquariums of Pyongyang about the camp.
“The thing I remember the most about in the camp is how the prison guards would kill people for no reason. I witnessed many people being executed,” he said.
According to Amnesty International, the satellite images of the camp taken 10-years-ago compared to the recent ones shows that the camp has definitely grown.
“The outside world certainly doesn't know what's going on and very little from the inside comes out,” said Sam Zarifi of Amnesty International last month.
The South Korean government is reported to be sending representatives from the Korean Conference on Religion and Peace to visit North Korea tomorrow on a mission to discuss peace and human rights. It is believed that they may meet with the country’s dictator Kim Jong-il.
