North Korea prison camps

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Panel Reveals Chilling Details From Camps in N. Korea

One judge who survived Auschwitz says conditions are just as bad, if not worse

(Newser) - Three international judges have been digging into conditions at North Korea's infamous labor camps , and one of them gives a damning assessment to the Washington Post : "I believe that the conditions in the [North] Korean prison camps are as terrible, or even worse, than those I saw and...

Images Show Scale of N. Korea's 'Crime Against Humanity'

These aren't the camps where political prisoners are sent—but they're still said to be extreme

(Newser) - While the rest of the world worries about Kim Jong Un's volatility on the nuclear front, experts and human rights activists tell the Washington Post that regular North Koreans are already living out a nightmare in the form of "unyielding gulag systems." They're now talking about...

North Korea Still Expanding Its Labor Camps: Reports

Satellite images show 'abuse on an industrial scale'

(Newser) - A 2014 UN report accusing Kim Jong Un of crimes against humanity through forced labor camps apparently did nothing to deter him. In fact, North Korea has increased and expanded its camps in the years since, according to satellite images included in a Committee for Human Rights in North Korea...

North Korea: Yes, We Have Labor Camps

But 'no prison, things like that,' UN envoy says

(Newser) - A North Korean official publicly acknowledged to the international community the existence of his country's "reform through labor" camps yesterday, a mention that appeared to come in response to a highly critical UN human rights report earlier this year. A North Korean foreign ministry official said at a...

Hundreds Related to Kim's Uncle Arrested
 Hundreds Related to 
 Kim's Uncle Arrested 
Local report
Dec 23, 2013 11:22 AM CST

Hundreds Related to Kim's Uncle Arrested

South Korean official doubts 'power struggle' led to execution

(Newser) - Authorities have rounded up hundreds of relatives of Kim Jong Un's recently executed uncle and ferried them to prison camps, according to a report out of Seoul. The night after Jang Song Thaek was executed, "armed men from the Ministry of State Security arrived unannounced in the Pyongchon...

Inmates Dug Own Graves in North Korea: Ex-Guard

And one prison is expanding, per new Amnesty International report

(Newser) - More horrific tales have emerged from North Korea via a new Amnesty International report that indicates the country's prison camps are expanding. Satellite images from May of this year indicate one of the largest sites, camp 15, features new housing blocks and production facilities; a review of images...

UN Details 'Unspeakable Atrocities' in North Korea

Inquiry chief urges world to take action against human rights abuses

(Newser) - With the world's attention currently focused on human rights abuses in Syria, the results of a UN inquiry is set to pull North Korea back into the spotlight, via a new report detailing the country's "systematic, widespread, and grave violations of human rights." The report is...

N. Korea Axes Talks on US Prisoner Over 'Blackmail'

US envoy's trip called off

(Newser) - North Korea has withdrawn its invitation to a US envoy to visit the country over a detained American because Washington perpetrated a "grave provocation" by allegedly mobilizing nuclear-capable bombers during military drills with Seoul that ended Friday. Analysts say the move signals that possible informal negotiations between the two...

N. Korea Guards Forced Woman to Drown Her Baby

Defectors tell their stories to UN panel

(Newser) - What's new are not the stories but the audience: Two North Korean defectors yesterday shared wrenching stories with the first UN panel assembled for the purpose of looking into human-rights violations in the country, reports the New York Times . The Commission of Inquiry's three members will spend a...

American Held in N. Korea Hospitalized

Family worried about Kenneth Bae's health

(Newser) - The family of an American man detained in North Korea says he's been hospitalized, and the need to bring him home is becoming more urgent. Terri Chung is the sister of Kenneth Bae , a tour operator and Christian missionary who has been detained for the past nine months. She...

American Prisoner in N. Korea Appears in Video

Kenneth Bae asks US to do more to secure his release

(Newser) - Despite the best diplomatic efforts of Dennis Rodman, American Kenneth Bae remains in a North Korea prison camp, where he is serving 15 years for "hostile acts to bring down its government." In a new video from inside the prison, a thinner Bae, wearing a dirty prison uniform,...

N. Korea: Detained American Hid Identity

Entered country 'under manipulation' of 'hostile' forces

(Newser) - North Korea today revealed a few more details about a Korean-American recently sentenced to 15 years' hard labor , saying he entered the country with a disguised identity. Pyongyang also rejected speculation that it intends to use Kenneth Bae as a bargaining chip. In remarks carried by state media, a Foreign...

UN to Finally Probe N. Korea's Secret Gulags

Prison camps could amount to crimes against humanity: official

(Newser) - The UN Human Rights Council has unanimously agreed to launch its first-ever investigation of human rights abuses in North Korea. An investigator urged a focus on prison camps , which "could qualify as crimes against humanity," he said. "These are camps which have the purpose of driving the...

North Korea Expanding Secret Gulag: Photos

Experts divided over meaning of Camp 25's purported expansion

(Newser) - North Korea's economy may not be growing, but one of its prison camps sure seems to be. New satellite photos show that Camp 25, thought to house about 5,000 of the 200,000 people believed to be held in North Korea's gulags, has grown steadily over the...

New on Google Maps: North Korea

Google rolls out update made without help from Pyongyang

(Newser) - Google Maps users can now get a much more detailed look at the land of gulags, secret nuclear sites, and, according to some reports, cannibalism . North Korea once appeared as almost a total blank on Google, but a new map being rolled out today shows details including streets, landmarks, and...

UN Honcho: We Must Investigate North Korea

Navi Pillay: Nuke worries overshadowing human-rights crisis

(Newser) - As the world keeps a vigilant eye on North Korea's nuclear program, the country's long list of human rights violations continue to slip under the radar, charges the United Nation's human rights head. The offenses, which have shown no sign of abating under Kim Jong Un, have...

Report Reveals Horrors of North Korea Prison Camps

Survivors describe starvation, torture

(Newser) - A South Korean human rights group has released the most detailed report yet on the horrific conditions in North Korea's labor camps, which are believed to hold up to 200,000 political prisoners. The report, based on interviews with hundreds of survivors who escaped to the South, tells of...

150K Held in Secret North Korea Gulag

 150K Held in Secret 
 North Korea Gulag 
new REPORT
Apr 10, 2012 10:11 AM CDT

150K Held in Secret North Korea Gulag

Human rights committee based report on account of 60 ex-prisoners

(Newser) - More than 150,000 North Koreans are incarcerated in a Soviet-style, hidden gulag despite Pyongyang's denial it even holds political prisoners, a human rights group reported today. The US-based Committee for Human Rights in North Korea said it based its report, which it's releasing as Pyongyang prepares to...

North Korean Gulag Survivor Tells His Tale

Book recounts his sending his own mother and brother to execution

(Newser) - Born in North Korea's largest and most infamous internment camp, Shin In Geun was raised behind electrified, barbed-wire fences in some of the most horrid conditions imaginable—constantly malnourished, beaten regularly, and forced to endure backbreaking labor every day. When Shin was just 13, he ratted out his older...

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