Crowdsourcing the hunt for North Korea’s prisons and prison camps

The world didn’t awaken to the horrors in North Korea in time save Kim Jong Il’s victims or hold him accountable, but it may be doing so in time to give Kim Jong Un some pause as he prosecutes his bloody purges. Various reports from inside North Korea — reports that are impossible to verify — say that he has carried out mass arrests and executions, both in Pyongyang and near the border regions that represent the greatest threat to his total control over information.

If those reports are true, we would expect to see that some of the camps had expanded, or that new facilities are being built to replace those that, like Camp 22, have been compromised. Recent satellite imagery suggests that the capacities of Camps 12, 14, 16, and 25 have all been expanded to one degree or another, but with new imagery becoming available on a regular basis, North Korea still hasn’t given up all of its secrets. And I have less time each year to find them myself.

This is where you come in. With the help of a friend I’ve never met, I’m crowdsourcing the search for North Korea’s secrets. A man who prefers to be identified as “a software engineer in Europe” has created a web page that allows anyone to pick a grid square and search it for suspect facilities. You’ll find the map, and instructions on how to use it, here.

By the way, our web designer friend in Europe already has one “find,” a possible prison up in remote Ryanggang Province.

It bears all of the characteristics typical of a prison, including guard towers, but I would not attempt to say that any location is confirmed to be a prison without witness corroboration. It could be a factory, or a military installation. But it’s a beginning to a process of investigation.

Prisons of this kind typically house a combination of violent, economic, and political criminals. Some of the prisoners there would be sent to prison in most countries for the behavior that got them sent here. Many others, such as those imprisoned for religious activities, unauthorized trade in consumer goods, or trying to flee the country, would not. But it is the conditions in these prisons — and the high mortality rates they cause — that really distinguishes them.

Obviously, our friend could be deluged with false reports or people mistaking power lines for fence lines, so if you want to join the search, I would first urge you to read and study these pages and become familiar with the distinctive characteristics of North Korean prisons. Large prison camps surrounded by fence lines and guard posts look nothing like the smaller, walled penitentiary-style prisons, and either can resemble military (or even industrial) facilities.

If you have experience as an imagery analyst, your assistance is especially welcome. And now that Congress has funded an online database for North Korea’s prison system, the information is likely to get wide dissemination, once confirmed. I’m obviously happy to credit anyone who is willing to be named.

Thank you, good day, and good hunting.