Hundreds of thousands of people, including children, are being held in political prison camps and other facilities where conditions are continuous violations of human rights – forced labor, denial of food, torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
It is estimated that 50,000 people are being held in Yodok, a camp for political prisoners in North Korea. Yodok is one of six known camps in the country, where an estimated 200,000 political prisoners and their families have been held without trial or due process.
The North Korean government denies the existence of any camp for political prisoners, including Yodok, despite the fact that their existence is confirmed by satellite imagery and testimony of former guardians, relatives of prisoners and former prisoners. Among the prisoners are officials whose job performances are seen as inadequate, critics of the regime and the ruling family, or people suspected of involvement in „anti-government“ activities such as listening to radio or television broadcasts from South Korea.
Family members of those suspected of crimes are also sent to Yodok. This system of guilt arising from kinship (guilt by association) is used to silence dissent and to control the population through fear. Executions in Yodok are held in public as well as in secret, and they are usually carried out by firing squad or hanging. Prisoners may be executed for any number of reasons, including breaking the rules of the prison camp, such as stealing food.
The camps have total control zones from which prisoners are never released, except in very exceptional situations. Amnesty International knows of only three people who were released or escaped from the zone of total control. Many children are born in these zones and are remain there for the duration of their lives.
Some international human rights organizations consider human rights abuses in the camps as Yodok so grave and systematic as to be considered equal to crimes against humanity – the most serious offense that can be investigated, for which perpetrators are prosecuted before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
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Release of kinship prisoners,
Admission of the political prisoner camps in North Korea.
Dear First Chairman:
Allow me to turn to you on behalf of Amnesty International Czech Republic to express our deep concern for the life of Kim Jeong-Nam, an 11 year-old boy who suddenly disappeared along with his mother in 2011.
Amnesty International believes that they have been arrested by the National Security Agency in connection with the human rights activities of Kang Chol-hwan, Kim Jeong-Nam‘s uncle, and taken to Yodok prison camp. We consider this detention to be arbitrary and as such a clear violation of international human rights law.
Amnesty International strongly denounces any imprisonment without trial, as well as prison sentences following grossly unfair trials on the basis of confessions obtained through torture. It is evident that prisoners in camps in North Korea are facing forced labour in dangerous conditions, beatings, lack of food, inadequate medical care and unhygienic living conditions.
In the light of these disturbing findings, we urge you to take the necessary steps to rectify the situation. Specifically, we call on you to release Kim Jeong-Nam and all others who are declared guilty solely because of the guilt-by-association principle, immediately and unconditionally. Furthermore, we call upon the North Korean authorities to respect the basic human rights of those accused and imprisoned.
Thank you for your attention to this important issue.
Yours sincerely
