Hatred may be the only rational emotion when confronting the truth about the monsters who run N. Korea:
Ethnic Infanticide and Forced Abortion
Perhaps the report’s most shocking finding is that repatriated pregnant women imprisoned in the jip-kyul-so are subjected to forced abortion. In the cases of advanced pregnancy, babies were killed immediately after birth. The goal of the regime is to eliminate children that may have been fathered by Han Chinese men.
Torture is Routine and Severe
Prisoners in all facilities are routinely beaten and kicked, made to sit motionless for long periods and denied food. For extra punishment, inmates are placed in small cells where it is impossible to lie down or stand up. Former prisoners interviewed for this report were subjected to water torture, deprived of sleep, and compelled to perform stand-up and sit-down repetitive motions. The penalty for attempting to escape is generally death by hanging or firing squad.
Rare Eye-Witness Accounts
North Korea is the most closed society in the world. Its prison system cannot be easily monitored. The small number of former prisoners who have managed to leave the country are often afraid to speak publicly for fear of endangering relatives still under the regime’s control. Remarkably, David Hawk interviewed more than 30 former prisoners and guards for The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea’s Prison Camps, the majority of whom agreed to let their names be used.
One Former Prisoner’s Story -- Kim Yong
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington on Wednesday, Kim Yong, detailed his experiences as a prisoner in two kwan-li-so prison colonies and his escape from prison and his subsequent escape from North Korea.
Kim was a lieutenant colonel at the time of his arrest and imprisonment. He had access to foreign currency and goods, a car and a chauffeur. Kim had been raised in an orphanage prior to rising in the ranks of the military. In the mid-90’s it was learned that Kim had been placed in the orphanage by his mother in 1957, when he was 7 years-old. That same year, Kim’s father had been executed as an American collaborator. His mother had changed his name and sent him to the orphanage for his own protection. In prison, Kim was accused of political crimes. His torture included being forced to kneel for long periods with a steel bar placed between his knees and calves, being suspended by his handcuffed wrists and being submerged in waist-deep cold water for extended periods.
Kim was required to work as a slave laborer in a coal mine and in a shop that repaired coal trolleys. While imprisoned at kwan-li-so No. 18, he surprisingly met his mother, with whom he was later allowed to live. In 1998, at his mother’s insistence, he escaped by first hiding in a coal car and later crossing the Tumen River into China. One year later, he made his way to South Korea by way of Mongolia. Said Kim, “If I had committed a crime, I would have taken responsibility for my actions. The only thing I did wrong was to grow up in a society with no respect for individuals or their human rights.”
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