Calls are mounting to hold those in the North Korean leadership accountable for crimes against humanity. The Center for Investigation & Documentation on Human Rights in North Korea was established in Seoul to document abuses perpetrated by the North Korean authorities and record the testimonies of victims of abuse. One of its major goals is to prepare the groundwork for a legal basis to prosecute those responsible in the North’s leadership. In order to understand the importance of why South Korea and the international community must undertake such work, we heard from victims of the North’s human rights violations themselves.
Today we hear the testimony of Park Ju Yong, who was held at Camp 18 (Pukchang political prison camp) for 24 years, from 1987 until 2010, charged under the North’s ‘guilt-by-association’ system.
As I understand it, you were actually born inside a political prison camp. This means that your parents were also both prisoners of the camp at the time. Could you please tell us why it was that they were imprisoned in the first place?
My grandfather on my mother’s side was a train driver. One day, the assistant driver sitting next to him made some kind of mistake. This person came from a powerful family, while my grandfather did not, so naturally my grandfather ended up taking the blame. Even though he had a clean driving record, he and his family were all sent to Camp (kwanliso) 21. There was nothing they could do. I am not even sure of the exact reason, and I could never get a more detailed explanation from my mother.
Do you remember what your grandfather looked like?
Sure, I was able to see him until I was 8 years old. We were all moved to Camp 18 together.
And could you tell us where Camp 21 was located?
Camp 21 was located in the countryside outside of Danchon in South Hamgyong Province.
When were you and your family moved to Camp 18?
I was born in 1987, and then at just 8 months old we all moved to Camp 18. We were a family with a baby less than a year old and were still subjected to such measures. Camp 18 was located somewhere near Pukchang in South Pyongan Province. It was basically a coal mine with guard towers and a barbed wire fence surrounding the entire mountain. The only thing we could do was dig for coal. It was purely a labor camp.
What kind of people were imprisoned there at Camp 18 with you and your family?
The people there were mostly imprisoned for political offenses. But there were also some people there for economic offenses. My family and I were called political prisoners and after a while, people were calling us “the worst of the worst” and [anti-regime] factionalists.
How many people do you think were imprisoned there?
I never really carefully counted so I’m not sure. But within one district of the prison, there were 10 peoples’ units consisting of 40 households each. A small household had about 4-6 members, while a large one could have up to 12 members. There were many districts that I remember like Sangri-dong or Sooan-dong, and there were 13 of these districts in our coal mine sector alone.
So if you calculate it, just in Camp 18 there likely would have been about 20 – 30,000 people.
Right, and other sectors of the camp had different organizational structures too. I did not go myself, so again I’m not sure, but I heard that the farming sector was split into 3 groups, while other districts or villages within the camp were similarly split. Regardless, the number of people living out their lives and laboring as political prisoners is simply unimaginable.
For you and others that were actually born inside a prison camp, you must not have known much about the outside world. When did you first leave the camp?
On August 15, 2003 our political prisoner status was lifted. I was only 13 at the time. Lifting this status, however, did not fully clear us of our past nor free us from confinement. It was more of a vacation from the previous living situation. So that fall we were relocated to another place near Danchon called Kumgang, where some of our relatives were staying.
But that, it turns out, is a district where all sorts of former prisoners and others expelled from their homes are sent to live. It is a different type of political prison camp. In this case, it was for prisoners with useful skills like the ability to dig and operate rock drills, as these were the tasks we were given inside the main camp. There weren’t any barbed wire fences, but although surveillance was more relaxed than in Camp 18, there were still guard posts. It was also pretty well hidden away in the countryside, so life still felt very confined.
Before your transfer from Camp 18, did you not know about the outside world?
No, I didn’t know anything at all about the outside world. I thought there were other places outside of our camp, but I just thought the people there must have lived like we did. Life in the prison camp was all I knew, so I had no other point of reference.
And what kinds of things did you feel upon leaving the confines of Camp 18? Do you remember it well?
Yes, I remember. It felt really good – beyond words. I felt butterflies in my stomach after hearing that we were to go on a trip. But I couldn’t properly enjoy the journey. We couldn’t just take a relaxing train ride and view the country through the window as one might in South Korea. There were so many people packed into the train that we couldn’t see outside the windows. The trains were so packed that sometimes people would even ride on the roofs of the cars, ducking under the electric wires. I was rather small for my age and ended up getting kicked around by the other adults throughout the whole train ride. So it was not really a happy memory for me. Even when we got off, it was just more of the same mountain views that I had always seen. I wasn’t able to catch a glimpse of the life of an ordinary North Korean citizen.
Again, even though you were born into the prison camp and spent your adolescent years there, did you still have dreams and goals for your future, for when you grew up?
My dream was to someday become a singer.
Finally, is there anything you would like to say to the people still languishing in the prison camps of North Korea?
There’s so much that I want to say but I’m not sure how to begin. I would first say to my mother and my siblings that I hope they can gather the courage to someday come and see the outside world. I wish they wouldn’t prevent their children from leaving the North, either. Most of them were still loyal to the Kim family when I left. I had learned about the outside when I was in Hyesan, but when I conveyed back to them the details of what I had learned, they didn’t believe me. Instead, they got angry at me, saying “Why would you say that if you know it’s forbidden?” Even after all they’d been through, after my grandfather was falsely accused and our whole family was sent to a prison camp, they were still loyal to Kim Il Sung.
Today in North Korea there is still this tragedy of families and even babies being sent to prison camps because of the alleged crimes of relatives whom they might not even know or recognize. This guilt-by-association system practiced by the North is prohibited under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – a declaration which North Korea also signed. I just hope that North Korea will abolish this horrible practice.
