That bastion of pro-Bush neoconservatism and mere mouthpiece for Anglo-American global hegemony, the Guardian [sarcasm off], ran this piece on North Korea’s prison camps which, if even half true, would make it one of the most disturbing things I’ve read in a long time. Anyway, here are some of the lowlights:
In the remote north-eastern corner of North Korea, close to the border of Russia and China, is Haengyong. Hidden away in the mountains, this remote town is home to Camp 22 - North Korea’s largest concentration camp, where thousands of men, women and children accused of political crimes are held.
Now, it is claimed, it is also where thousands die each year and where prison guards stamp on the necks of babies born to prisoners to kill them.
Over the past year harrowing first-hand testimonies from North Korean defectors have detailed execution and torture, and now chilling evidence has emerged that the walls of Camp 22 hide an even more evil secret: gas chambers where horrific chemical experiments are conducted on human beings.
Witnesses have described watching entire families being put in glass chambers and gassed. They are left to an agonising death while scientists take notes. The allegations offer the most shocking glimpse so far of Kim Jong-il’s North Korean regime.
Keep in mind, this is the Guardian writing this, not the WSJ or the Chosun Ilbo. Anyway, the Beeb (I’ll say that again, the Beeb) got to chat with one of the former head of Camp 22, and here’s what he had to say:
Kwon Hyuk, who has changed his name, was the former military attache at the North Korean Embassy in Beijing. He was also the chief of management at Camp 22. In the BBC’s This World documentary, to be broadcast tonight, Hyuk claims he now wants the world to know what is happening.
‘I witnessed a whole family being tested on suffocating gas and dying in the gas chamber,’ he said. ‘The parents, son and and a daughter. The parents were vomiting and dying, but till the very last moment they tried to save kids by doing mouth-to-mouth breathing.’
Hyuk has drawn detailed diagrams of the gas chamber he saw. He said: ‘The glass chamber is sealed airtight. It is 3.5 metres wide, 3m long and 2.2m high_ [There] is the injection tube going through the unit. Normally, a family sticks together and individual prisoners stand separately around the corners. Scientists observe the entire process from above, through the glass.’
He explains how he had believed this treatment was justified. ‘At the time I felt that they thoroughly deserved such a death. Because all of us were led to believe that all the bad things that were happening to North Korea were their fault; that we were poor, divided and not making progress as a country.
‘It would be a total lie for me to say I feel sympathetic about the children dying such a painful death. Under the society and the regime I was in at the time, I only felt that they were the enemies. So I felt no sympathy or pity for them at all.’
More class enemies get the treatment:
His testimony is backed up by Soon Ok-lee, who was imprisoned for seven years. ‘An officer ordered me to select 50 healthy female prisoners,’ she said. ‘One of the guards handed me a basket full of soaked cabbage, told me not to eat it but to give it to the 50 women. I gave them out and heard a scream from those who had eaten them. They were all screaming and vomiting blood. All who ate the cabbage leaves started violently vomiting blood and screaming with pain. It was hell. In less than 20 minutes they were quite dead.’
Defectors have smuggled out documents that appear to reveal how methodical the chemical experiments were. One stamped ‘top secret’ and ‘transfer letter’ is dated February 2002. The name of the victim was Lin Hun-hwa. He was 39. The text reads: ‘The above person is transferred from … camp number 22 for the purpose of human experimentation of liquid gas for chemical weapons.’
Kim Sang-hun, a North Korean human rights worker, says the document is genuine. He said: ‘It carries a North Korean format, the quality of paper is North Korean and it has an official stamp of agencies involved with this human experimentation. A stamp they cannot deny. And it carries names of the victim and where and why and how these people were experimented [on].’
The number of prisoners held in the North Korean gulag is not known: one estimate is 200,000, held in 12 or more centres. Camp 22 is thought to hold 50,000.
I have no idea how reliable these reports are — one generally has to weigh the tendency for North Korean defectors to “sex up” their stories in order to please their hosts against the truly nasty nature of the North Korean regime. Nevertheless, those are some pretty horrifying tales, and they make you wonder about those who think that it’s a good idea to help North Korea’s leaders remain in power.
BBC report here.
(Hat tip to the Oranckay)
16 Comments
Meanwhile, George “No President has ever done more for human rights than I have” Bush continues to negotiate with these monsters.
The world needs to stick Kim Jong-il’s fat ass in a gas chamber… let him die a slow, painful death…
I am completely for Brian’s comments. But the problem is, how are we going to be able to get our hands on Kim Jong Il?
You forgot solution No. 4: move the government out of the worst of harm’s way, give the North hundreds of millions of dollars, alternately insist US forces leave Korea and not change a thing, then fake incompetence to force a constitutional crisis.
brian,
we can’t handle the nKorean issue the same way we handled iraq and afghanistan. it’s unfortunate that seoul is so close to the dmz or this probably wouldn’t be an issue but as long as there is a risk to seoul and the millions of people that live there.. the south koreans have a vote in how we handle the matter. they have made it clear that they don’t want a war. so make no mistake about who to blame for the human rights issue up north.
I don’t have any answers, God knows, but I’m amazed, astonished and very, very angry that the North Korean government feels free to do whatever it wants. How did we allow this to go on? Why was it that someone like me, who keeps up with the news pretty well, didn’t know what a threat North Korea was to the world until 2003?
We can’t be as powerless as we seem, can we?
I’m not sure if there is anything we really can do about the human rights situation in North Korea, aside from chosing not to pump money into the country. As bad as the situation is, realpolitik essentially dictates that the only real way to encourage change in North Korea’s domestic political situation — an invasion — is not really an option. That’s what really hurts about articles like the one above — they may actually give us some idea about conditions in North Korea (disclaimer mentioned in my post above), but in the end, they won’t impact policy decisions in this case, and for very good reasons. Unfortunately, that leaves everyone involved feeling rather dirty.
Brian — perhaps this is unfair, because I know you’re not a fan of North Korea, but aren’t you the Clinton man? I’d expect criticism of Bush’s “soft” North Korea policy from the far right, but I’m a bit surprised to see it come from the other side of the aisle.
The silence of South Korea’s government on this is repulsive.
True, Michael. However, the South Korean government has tried to improve situations in the North in the past, only to be threatened to shut up or face an invasion.
I came up with a few solutions to the problem. Most of them are absurd, but don’t get angry with me.
1. Sent spies to assassinate the whole ruling Kim family in North Korea and allow the country fall into chaos as the upper class struggle for power. Once North Korea falls into confusion, invade and take over.
2. Evacuate all of the people of South Korea to several nations and tell them to wait while the South Korean and United States ivade and take over the North.
3. Bomb every missile pad, army bases, railroads as well as the large cities of North Korea. After all, all of the people who inhabitate these cities are supporters of the regime.
There isn’t much the South Korean government can do about what’s going on in the North. Frankly there isn’t much anybody can do about it. What does disgust me, however, is that some South Korean “progressives” have, at times, sought to downplay or even deny that gross violations of human rights are taking place in the North. The often bewildering statements made by Minister of Unification Jeong Se-hyeon are only the tip of the iceberg. I’m sure I need not remind readers of how the head of South Korea’s human rights commission couldn’t answer whether human rights abuses were more serious in North Korea or South Korea, although he and his commission were able to determine that the War in Iraq constituted a human rights abuse. And then there was the decision to sit out the EU-sponsored UN vote to condemn human rights abuses in the North. And before I get jumped on for being a pro-Bush wacko, let me point out to the more “multilaterally-minded” that France has refused to establish diplomatic relations with Pyongyang because of the its human rights record. I can understand arguments in favor of enagement, even if I don’t happened to agree with them. But if you’re going to engage (i.e., pump money into) North Korea, the least you can do is be honest — both with yourself and with the voters — about what it is that you’re engaging.
Marmot,
Perhaps I’m being unfair to Bush for criticizing his NK policy… like you said, Clinton was doing the same 19 years ago. To be more spcific… I’m unhappy with the American government - no matter who is running it - sitting down with those monsters. It gives them legitimacy they don’t deserve and sullies our own record on human rights (which is far from perfect to begin with).
Brian
Actually, Mr. Marmot just expended very nicely on what I meant about SK gov’t silence. I especially agree with his conclusion, if you’re going to deal with the NK acknowledge to your people that you’re dealing with a dictatorship, and spare them the “sunshine.”
Look, this is a BBC report. Their credibility is in the shitter. They’re a bunch of holier-than-thou sanctimonious twits - you only need watch BBC World News for five minutes to figure that out. Not that I’m trying to defend Little Elvis or anything - I just wish the source was more credible.
How did we allow this to go on? … We can’t be as powerless as we seem, can we?
Other than expressing our disapproval and perhaps not engaging econmically, we are not in the business of dictating how other governments treat their own populace. We have neither the desire, manpower, will or resources to be the world’s mom/moral conscience. At best we look out for our own security and that of friendly governments from external threats.
Besides its amazing the extent to which a populace freed from a repressive government still resent the interference of an outside power in their internal affairs. Iraq being the prime example. I think the neo-cons actually believed the people in Iraq would celebrate our troops as liberators and greet our troops with flowers. Talk about buying into your own hype/being delusional.
I realize the North Korean case is extreme but …
Wedge — I actually see the BBC and the Guardian running this story as a boon to its credibility in certain quarters. If it was FOX running the story, you’d have people saying that it was simply a Republican ploy to justify pressure on North Korea. Certainly, no one will make the same accusations against the Beeb and the Guardian.
I understand that there might be need to remind that this is a Guardian report,
but I don’t think this is anything special in Guardian’s DPRK reporting.
Chusok…
If we tell the people we want to save to go to Pusan, free up a couple extra trains, and move the whole capital south without telling the norks, they might just surrender when they didn’t have any women or children to shoot at…
Yeah, I know, it would never work… the “professors” and some of the “students” would give it away…
But I think we’re all fotgetting that it isn’t the missiles, cannons, guns, bombs, knives, and pointed sticks of the norks that yer average under-30 Korean worries about… it’s those hegemonistic miguns…
Maybe this could be an honorable mention for the Darwin Awards?