Yanji, China – An accident at a mine near Jeongeu-ri in Hoiryeong, North Hamkyung Province left 22 people dead and more than 20 critically injured. Among the injured is the mine supervisor. The mine where the incident occurred is part of the “No. 12 Reeducation Camp.”<\/p>\n
According to a North Korean source, a mineshaft caved in after a blasting operation, crushing all those inside. Signs of danger were evident once the explosives were detonated as fissures appeared in the rock foundation. Despite this, prisoners were sent back into the mine. Fifty prisoners were helplessly buried under a mound of rocks and dirt as a result of this negligence.<\/p>\n
The accident took place at the mine behind Sang-dong, approximately 4km from the No. 12 Reeducation Camp\u2019s headquarter. <\/p>\n
“Of the 22, around 10 people died immediately on the spot and the rest passed on the way to the camp or a hospital in Hoiryeong,\u201d the source said. \u201cImmediately after the collapse, re-education Camp authorities mobilized around 100 prisoners affiliated with Department No. 2 of the reeducation camp for the recovery.” <\/p>\n
The source added, “There is not even a basic medical facility inside the camp and camp authorities did not call vehicles to evacuate the injured. So the number of deceased increased during the process of moving the injured to the hospital.”<\/p>\n
“Camp authorities cremated all the dead at a cremation site exclusively used by the No. 12 Reeducation Camp and immediately after the accident, they prohibited interviews by family members for 15 days in order to conceal inside information,\u201d the source explained. However, despite officials\u2019 best efforts, the reason we know of the accident is through the family members of the injured. <\/p>\n
The source also said that there was neither compensation for the families of the victims nor punishment for camp officials. <\/p>\n
Park, a defector, was imprisoned in the No. 12 Reeducation Camp for three years for crossing the border. Said Park, “no reeducation camp in North Korea returns the body of the deceased to the family. So at the Jeongeu-ri Reeducation Camp, regardless of whether the cause of death is calamity or disease, the bodies are cremated in the Bulmang Mountain crematory.”<\/p>\n
The No. 12 Reeducation Camp was built at the end of the 1970s with the name “No. 22 Youth Educational Center (\uc81c22\ud638 \uccad\ub144\uad50\uc591\uc18c)” and simple criminals or economic offenders were incarcerated. But in the mid 1980s, the name was changed to “No. 12 Reeducation Camp.” The camp currently houses a variety of inmates who have committed crimes like illegal border-crossing, viewing of foreign films, murder, theft, and violence. Sentences range from a minimum of one year to imprisonment for life.<\/p>\n
The No. 12 Reeducation Camp, also called “Jeongeu-ri Kyohwa-so,\u201d consists of five departments: the Safety Department, the Education Department, the Production Department, the Financial Department, the Administrative Department, and the Leadership Department. The Nos. 1 and 3 Departments are located in the main building and the Nos. 2, 4, and 5 Departments are in separate branch offices. The No. 2 Department is in charge of the mining project to dig the copper ore and the gold mine used in foreign currency earning for the central Party’s \u201cthe 39th Department’ and the ‘People’s Safety Agency.’ There is no manager to command Departments Nos. 2, 4, and 5 and the two departments in the main headquarters each have security officers, a team leader, and secretaries.<\/p>\n
The No. 12 Reeducation Camp originally admitted only male prisoners, but with the mass-scale relocation of female prisoners from the No. 14 Education Camp in Kaecheun, South Hamkyung Province at the end of last year, No. 12 currently operates as a co-ed reeducation center.<\/p>\n
As more North Korean women play central roles in the livelihoods of families, they also happen to commit more economic crimes in the process, and thus, the number of female prisoners is said to have increased exponentially. <\/p>\n
The total number of prisoners at No. 12 Reeducation Camp is known to be around 3,000, but with the construction of a new women’s barrack, the number is supposed to increase to over 4,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Yanji, China – An accident at a mine near Jeongeu-ri in Hoiryeong, North Hamkyung Province left 22 people dead and more than 20 critically injured. Among the injured is the mine supervisor. The mine where the incident occurred is part of the “No. 12 Reeducation Camp.” According to a North Korean source, a mineshaft caved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":160,"featured_media":6146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[645],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy"],"yoast_head":"\n