“Completely Isolated Areas” Exist in North Korea

[imText1] Gulags (political prison camps) in North Korea are “natural concentration camps” surrounded by wild mountains. Prisoners have opportunity to be released at the “Revolutionization Area,” but when one enters into the “Completely Controlled Area,” there is not way for him to come out alive. They were first built after the Korean War to isolate those who were pro-Japan, but later they were used to imprison those against Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. Currently it is estimated that about 200,000 prisoners in the five existing “Completely Controlled Area.”

When the satellite pictures taken in 2002 and 2003 by the professional satellite photographing institution, Digital Globe, by the request of the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, there were many who questioned “How can we be assured that they are the gulags?”

They have a point. It is difficult to verify whether they are the gulags or not only by satellite pictures. All they have is the explanation of the defectors on location, shape of buildings and geographic features in the pictures.

Furthermore, some of the average defectors testify, “It is not know what is happening inside those places but the truth is that the common people cannot get to those places.” With such testimonies, we could know discover that those areas are being used for “special purpose.”.

Natural Prison Due to the Precipitous Geographic Features

Gulags in North Korea are known as “Special Absolute Area.” The government of North Korea call them ”Kwan-li-so” for example, Kwan-li-so #14 or Kwan-li-so #15, and they are managed by the National Security Department. On the outside, it hangs a sign that says, “The Choson People’s Army oooo Unit,” to have them look like military facilities.

Usually people think of prisons when they hear “gulags.” They picture a huge prison building with small cells in which prisoners are caged in. However, North Korea gulags are nothing of that sort. As we can see from the name, “Special Absolute Area,” if North Korean society a whole is where common and socialistic dictatorship is practiced, the gulags are where “special dictatorship” is practiced. Although it may not look that special from outside, those places are where “special” human rights violations take place, where the prisoners are completely isolated with no personal freedom.

For this reason those of who say they cannot believe the existence of the gulags simply by looking at the pictures will not believe it no matter what is told to them unless they see it with their eyes. This is exactly what the Europeans said during the WWII, that they cannot believe about the gas chambers of the Auschwitz.

Number of Gulags Decreased due to the fear of Exposure and Creation of “The Second Line”

Usually the gulags have a feature of a village in a remote mountains area. Actually gulags include little villages and includes a wide range of area as the part of the “Completely Controlled Area.” They put fences around the area and the guards patrolled the entire area. Basically, they made natural gulags using mountainous regions.

For example, the Gulag #15 of which the ten defectors who were formerly prisoners in North Korean gulags including Kang Chul Hwan, includes 2/3 of the entire Yoduk district of South Hamkyung Province. Multi-folds of high mountains surround the area. The Gulag #22 located in Huiryeong of North Hamkyung province is 30km from east to west and 25km from north to south, which is 25 times of its size of Yeouido (a place in Seoul). The mountains of 1000m high surround those areas so they are the perfect places for isolating people.

In such large areas, town of gulags are divided. Because North Korea practices “built by association system” although there are few cases where only the wrongdoing people area arrested, in most cases, the entire family is arrested. For this reason, even in the same town inside a gulag, the area is divided into area for singles and area for families. Also, they have a separate area for Korean Japanese.

Gulags are located across the nation. Those verified are located in Gaechon, South Pyongan province (#14), Yoduk, South Hamkyung province (#15), Chunma, North Pyongan province (#27, moved in November, 1990), and those located in North Hamkyung province include Onsung (#12, move in May 1987), Jongsung (#13, moved in Dec 1990), Huiryeong (#22), Chungjin (#25), Kyungsung (#11, moved in Oct 1989) and Hwansung (#16).
Originally there were 10 gulags in North Korea, but from late 1980s to early1990s, many were moved and joined with other ones, so now there are 5 currently existing gulags. Before they were moved, it was known that the number of prisoners range from 5,000 to 50,000 inside one gulag, but after they were moved, it is estimated about 200,000 prisoners all together.

▲ Location of the Gulags printed by U.S committee for Human Rights in NK

In fear of exposure, the government of North Korea moved the gulags closely located to the border area and joined them with those ones more in land. It is also known that there was a mass strike in the Onsung gulag #12 in May 1987 and as a result 5000 political prisoners were killed, and due to this incident the government of North Korea feared that in case of a war the political prisoners could strike and form “the second line (against the North Korean government).” As a result, gulags formerly located in Onsung and Jongsung were joined with the Huiryeong gulag.

Nobody Can Walk Out Alive from the “Completely Controlled Area”

The gulags are divided into “Revolutionization Area” and “Completely Controlled Area.”

Those people taken to the “Revolutionization Area” are the ones whose sentence is relatively light (most of them could no even have a proper legal proceeding) and some people are released back to the common society.

There are many Korean Japanese in Yoduk Gulag, and this is because when Korean Japanese have a hard time adjusting, although there was no crime committed, many of them are sent to the Yoduk gulag. According to the amount of money sent from their relatives in Japan, they can be released. Sometimes those who used to hold high positions are sent to the gulags for “education” and once they are educated, they are released. The defectors who were former gulag prisoners are the ones who were imprisoned in the revolutionization area.

In some cases, prisoners in revolutionization area are taken to the completely controlled area, which in most cases are sentenced with crime of resisting against prison guards. According to Kang Chul Hwan’s testimony, a person who used to have religious belief was first sent to the revolutionization area but she was revealed praying and was sent to the completely controlled area.

The completely controlled area stand for an area once you set a food in, you can never come back out. Most of the people taken to the completely controlled area were originally the anti-regime, pro-Japan, religious people or those involved in the constabulary force during the Korean War. However, now it includes people who were purged during the process of power expansion of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, those who secretly criticized Kim Jong Il, those secretly met with foreign students or officials, and those who are believed to have contacted South Koreans when they visited China during the food crisis.
They say that the level of oppression is much higher there and even the people in revolutionization area shiver when they hear the words “completely controlled area.” There are many who suicide while they are being taken to the completely controlled area.

The difference between the revolutionization are and completely controlled area is well revealed in the attitude of prisoners toward the prison guards. In the revolutionization area, you greet bowing down 90degree when the guards pass, but in the completely controlled area, you have to kneel down. It is know that in the gulag #14, you have to kneel down turned around. It is also told that the level of labor is also much higher, that people can barely survive.

The security officials of the National Security Department management the gulags and the surveillance is managed by the guard unit of the National Security Department. The defector Ahn Myung Chul belonged to Guard Unit 7 of the National Security Department.

Although there are sometimes humane guards, but once they are revealed to be nice to the prisoners, they are expelled to mines. For this reason, the guards have no choice but become cruel and over time, are dehumanized. Ogawa Haruhisa, an expert on North Korea who is also a professor at Tokyo University exclaims, “both the prisoners and guards become savage.”

People with Bad Family → Against Kim Il Sung → Against Kim Jong Il

The gulags which were first built to imprison pro-Japan, or religious people, transformed a number of times.

Firstly, the gulags expand after the Korean War ended, the South Labor Party Faction, the Soviet Union Faction and the Yeonan Faction were all purged and during the process of arresting families of people who moved to South Korea or people engaged in South Korean police.

The from late 1950s to the end of 1960s, according to Kim Il Sung’s command, as the popular registration project proceeded, the entire population becomes divided three categories of Core strata, Enemy strata, and Middle strata and into 51 sub-categories, the people in enemy strata were taken to the gulags. After the late 1960s, during the security building of the Kim Il Sung throne ideology structure, those who were against the politics were also taken to the gulags.

Then in 1972, as responsibility of the management of the gulags transferred from Social Safety Department to the National Security Department, the number of gulags increase and the control level heightens. At this time while mass political prisoners were transferred from one gulag to another, there were a number of riots and escapes.

In the 1980s, during the process of power shift from Kim Il Sung to Kim Jong Il, 15,000 people were taken to gulags at one time and in the late 1980s after the socialism collapse and high level control, many students who studied abroad and diplomats are also sent to the gulags. Apart from them, families of Korean Japanese were imprisoned in the gulags since the late 1970s.

In short, the gulags were first built to isolate those with bad family lines but in the process of power expansion of Kim Il Sung, number of mass gulags increase, then during the power shift to Kim Jong Il and socialism collapse in Europe as well as the food crisis, shaped and changed the gulags of today.