{"id":51618,"date":"2022-05-12T14:52:18","date_gmt":"2022-05-12T05:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/?p=51618"},"modified":"2026-04-05T16:10:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T07:10:31","slug":"inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\/","title":{"rendered":"Hwasong political prison inmates may be working to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">North Korean authorities recently divided political prisoners at North Hamgyong Province&#8217;s Hwasong political prison camp into two separate groups, Daily NK has learned.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPolitical prisoners at the Hwasong camp have been split between two areas, with the really hard cases being transferred [to the new area]. Prisoners in the new area outnumber prisoners in the old one by a ratio of about eight to two,\u201d a source in North Korea told Daily NK on May 6.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The source explained that North Korea has placed the new section of the camp, where the serious criminals have been relocated, under the authority of the Ministry of State Security, while the old section is being overseen by the Ministry of Social Security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, Daily NK has been unable to ascertain when exactly the division of the prisoners and the changes in jurisdiction took place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhile jurisdiction over the old section was changed [to the Ministry of Social Security], it is under the same level of security and control. The wardens and guards from the Ministry of State Security were withdrawn from the old section and were replaced by people from the Ministry of Social Security,\u201d the source said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe wardens from the Ministry of State Security who were in the old section were sent to manage the new section. Officials who wanted to work somewhere else were transferred with no changes to their rank,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The majority of political prison camps under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of State Security \u2014 as the Hwasong camp had been \u2014 are completely cordoned off from the outside world. Once inmates enter one of these camps, they are never allowed to return to society.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In December 2021, Daily NK quoted a source in North Korea as saying that the North Korean government was <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/north-korea-establishes-new-system-classify-inmates-political-prisons\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">building a new system for detaining political prisoners<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and that it had sent the worst political prisoners in North Hamgyong Province, Yanggang Province, Chagang Province and North Pyongan Province (amounting to 60% of the total of this kind of prisoner) to the Hwasong camp. Daily NK also reported that some of the camp facilities had been expanded to accommodate the larger number of detainees.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In regards to the more recent changes, Daily NK\u2019s source in the country explained that the Hwasong camp was divided into two areas and the prisoners split between them so that prisoners could be mobilized for the construction of sensitive facilities that require a high level of security.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThese measures were taken so that the prisoners who are under the charge of the Ministry of Social Security can be taken by armed guards to work on the construction of tunnels and special bases that are off-limits to the public. The political prisoners who are under the charge of the Ministry of State Security can\u2019t leave the camp unless there are changes in laws or regulations,\u201d the source said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">After recently revoking its moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), North Korea has reportedly been restoring its nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, Kilju County, North Hamgyong Province. Since the Hwasong camp is a little over 20km from Punggye-ri, there is speculation that prisoners are being put to work on restoring the nuclear test site.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWhile the number of management staff largely remains unchanged, the number of sentries, guards and armed transport staff have been tripled. These are the kind of workers who would be needed to put [prisoners] on secret work projects outside [the camp walls],\u201d the source said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The camp seems to have expanded the surveillance and guard staff needed to send prisoners to construction sites at high-security external facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The source also said that the human rights situation inside the Hwasong camp is expected to get even worse for the prisoners.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cPrisoners in the section managed by the Ministry of Social Security are being worked to death in secret tunnels and in places that are too dangerous for ordinary people to be sent. They aren\u2019t given any food beyond the minimum or allowed any food from outside with chili pepper flakes or other seasoning. Many of them are dying on the job,\u201d the source said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cAccording to the camp management\u2019s operational rules, people working under hardship conditions in mines and tunnels are supposed to receive 100g more food than ordinary workers even inside the camp, but they stopped giving out extra rations a long time ago,\u201d he added.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b><i>Translated by David Carruth. Edited by Robert Lauler.\u00a0<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em>Please direct any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/20220506-4\/\">Read in Korean<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>North Korean authorities recently divided political prisoners at North Hamgyong Province&#8217;s Hwasong political prison camp into two separate groups, Daily NK has learned. \u201cPolitical prisoners at the Hwasong camp have been split between two areas, with the really hard cases being transferred [to the new area]. Prisoners in the new area outnumber prisoners in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":127,"featured_media":50092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67,1361],"tags":[995,1367],"class_list":["post-51618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-prison-camps","tag-prison-camps","tag-nuclear-weapons"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.7 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Hwasong political prison inmates may be working to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site - North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hwasong political prison inmates may be working to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"North Korean authorities recently divided political prisoners at North Hamgyong Province&#8217;s Hwasong political prison camp into two separate groups, Daily NK has learned. \u201cPolitical prisoners at the Hwasong camp have been split between two areas, with the really hard cases being transferred [to the new area]. Prisoners in the new area outnumber prisoners in the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"North Korea News \u2014 Daily NK | Latest DPRK Updates 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-12T05:52:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-04-05T07:10:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.dailynk.com\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/12\/16\ud638-\uad00\ub9ac\uc18c1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"519\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mun Dong Hui\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mun Dong Hui\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Mun Dong Hui\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f849d1af9f17b1e55ff69fe16696b107\"},\"headline\":\"Hwasong political prison inmates may be working to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-12T05:52:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-04-05T07:10:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":772,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/2\\\/2021\\\/12\\\/16\ud638-\uad00\ub9ac\uc18c1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"prison camps\",\"nuclear weapons\"],\"articleSection\":[\"News\",\"Prison Camps\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.dailynk.com\\\/english\\\/inmates-hwasong-political-prison-inmates-may-working-restore-punggye-ri-nuclear-test-site\\\/\",\"name\":\"Hwasong political prison inmates may be working to restore the Punggye-ri nuclear test site - 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