Life inside a North Korea labour camp

A man who survived one of North Korea’s most notorious forced labour camps has spoken about the 10 years he spent in captivity. Kang Cheol-hwan, a North Korean defector, was confined at the Yodok concentration camp, otherwise known as Camp 15, used to imprison so-called enemies of the state.

It is hidden in a mountainous region around 110km from the capital, Pyongyang. Speaking to South Africa’s Independent Online, Mr Kang said his grandparents held respected government positions under Kim Il-Sung, the leader of North Korea from its establishment in 1948 to his death in 1994.

When power was transferred to his son, Kim Jong-il, Mr Kang’s family criticised the “creation of a dynasty” which was not “in keeping with communist principles” - a dissenting view that led to the next two generations of the family being incarcerated in Camp 15.

Mr Kang, a child at the time, was forced to carry out hard labour, which involved pulling heavy wood for several kilometres.He also recalled a memory of watching a man being hanged. “It was not only the hanging itself, but the fact that the guards forced prisoners to throw rocks at the body and left it hanging there for a week until the birds had pecked at it so much it was beyond recognition.”

Read more at The Independent