A Chilling Look Inside North Korea's Modern-Day Gulag
There are over 24 million people living inside North Korea.
But there are between 150,000 and 200,000 who have 'disappeared.' They live in brutal concentration camps throughout the country.
Source: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
Former prisoners say conditions are so bad that 20 to 25 percent of the population dies every year.
Source: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
The North uses guilt by association to lock up entire families, sometimes just for knowing someone convicted of "wrong thought."
Source: Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
Shin Dong-hyuk was born inside one camp, and lived there 23 years before he was able to escape.
There have been few successful escapes. That's because anyone who tries, plans, or has knowledge of an escape is executed. And prisoners are required to watch.
Starvation is common, as prisoners are usually only fed gruel made of cornmeal and cabbage. "We were always hungry, and the guards always told us 'through hunger you will repent,'" Shin said. They often eat rats and insects just to stay alive.
Without protein and calcium in their diet prisoners develop hunchbacks from bending over during forced labor in the fields or lose toes and fingers due to frostbite.
The guards are relentless in their brutality.
They often terrorize and torture their captives — sometimes just for fun, according to escapees.
The tip of one of Shin's fingers was chopped off as punishment for accidentally breaking a machine while working in a factory.
When he was just 13 years old, Shin was sent to an underground torture center when his mother and older brother were accused of attempting an escape. "They hung me by the ankles and they tortured me with fire."
All of the methods of torture are appalling — but some are especially disturbing.
Women aren't afforded any leniency.
Pregnancy is strictly forbidden, except in the case of a 'marriage' arranged by the prison guards.
Prisoners are categorized as their conditions deteriorate ...
... While guards and party officials are well-treated for their dedication to the regime.
Escape is incredibly difficult even for North Koreans living outside the gulag system. But if prisoners can make it past the guards and electrified fences ...
... they still need to get across the border to China, where if discovered, they face the possibility of being sent back.
While North Korea denies that the camps even exist, satellite imagery shows them scattered around the country — and they are growing.
Source: Amnesty International
And for North Koreans outside the camps, the fear of the gulag ensures their loyalty to a paranoid regime that's highly conscious of its own questionable long-term outlook.
Even so, a combination of militancy, internal oppression, and the apparent support of regime elites mean that Kim Jong-un's government still has complete power over North Korea's people.
Watch the entire interview with Shin Dong-hyuk below:
You've seen what it's like inside the North Korean gulag ...
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