Search Results for: camps

Camps 14 and 18, North Korea: Satellite Imagery and Witness Accounts

In central North Korea, along the Taedong River far upstream from Pyongyang, lie two of North Korea’s five largest concentration camps: Camp 14 and Camp 18, which hold an approximate total of 50,000 political prisoners, their spouses, and their children. The camps lie on opposite sides of the river in an area rich in coal, where mines are worked by the mine’s prisoners. For context, here are the boundaries of both camps in relation to the other largest camps —...

Comments: 52
July 23, 2009

Wanted: Korea Bar Association Report on North Korean Concentration Camps (Update: Thank you)

Blaine Harden’s Washington Post article on Monday cited a report by the Korean Bar Association that contains an extensive collection of interviews of North Korean concentration camp survivors and witnesses.  If I had a copy of that report, I would undertake a detailed examination of those witness’s statements for consistency with each other, with previous reports, and with satellite imagery of the camps.  If possible, I would use that report to greatly expand my Google Earth posts about the camps. ...

Categories Human Rights
July 21, 2009

Absolute Must Read: Washington Post on North Korea’s Concentration Camps

At last.  The Washington Post has done a truly detailed, comprehensive, well-researched story on North Korea’s concentration camps.  It’s a story that the Post wouldn’t have done had Anthony Faiola or Glenn Kessler been doing the reporting; Blaine Harden deserves much credit for writing what deserves to become a major exhibit in the indictment of our State Department for its culpable complicity.  The satellite imagery of the camps features prominently in the story. (Disclosure:  I provided Mr. Harden and one...

Categories Human Rights/The Camps/U.S. Politics/Washington Views
June 9, 2009

Ling, Lee Sentences Raise Interest in North Korean Labor, Concentration Camps (Updated)

Again, the North Koreans demonstrate their talent for attracting the wrong kind of attention.  Following the conviction of U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, news outlets have begin publishing sidebar stories and printing background quotes about what life is really like in a North Korean labor camp.  The L.A. Times has a full length story about it, complete with a quote by David Hawk and a diagram of what appears to be Kyo-Hwa-So Number 1, near the city of...

Categories Human Rights/The Camps
December 16, 2008

WaPo Finally ‘Discovers’ Concentration Camps in North Korea

I submit that any man so morally retarded that he would utter the statement quoted below is not qualified to represent the values or interests of the United States abroad. And South Korea isn’t alone in tuning out the horrors. The United States is more concerned with containing North Korea’s nuclear ambitions. The State Department’s stunning lack of urgency was captured in a recent statement from its assistant secretary for Asia, Christopher R. Hill: “Each country, including our own, needs...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Media Criticism/Six-Party Talks/The Camps

North Korea’s Largest Concentration Camps on Google Earth

The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea estimates that North Korea holds as many as 120,000 people in its system of concentration and detention camps, and that 400,000 people have died in these camps from torture, starvation, disease, and execution. These reports, in the context of estimates that North Korea has allowed between 600,000 and 2,500,000 of its people to starve to death while its government squandered the nation’s resources on weapons and luxuries for its ruling elite, suggest that...

Comments: 127
March 8, 2008

Hill: Gas Chambers, Concentration Camps, and Refugee Massacres No Impediment to Full Diplomatic Relations After All

Last February, just after Chris Hill rolled out that  landmark achievement called Agreed Framework 2.0 — how is that working out, by the way? —  he went to Congress to defend  his amorphous  cloud of ether  against some obvious questions about how the North Koreans might interpret it and  what laws the agreement might actually break in its application.  You mentioned certain laws of ours that reflect human rights issues and humanitarian law. I can assure you that any agreement...

Categories Appeasement/Human Rights/Six-Party Talks
January 4, 2008

Anti-Slavery International: ‘Forced Labor in North Korean Prison Camps’

[Update:   Kathreb responds here, but VanMidd comes the closest to the truth:  “[A]ll us lefties are scoob smoking hippies on welfare ….”  Good on you for  admitting it, and I’d gladly return the favor by recommending a decent barber and springing for  bus fare  to the day labor center or the  nearest Home Depot.  It’s going to be a long road, VanMidd, but we’ll be here for you when you decide to take that first step.]   Over at...

Categories Activism/Human Rights
May 31, 2007

Freedom House Will Host Discussion on N. Korean Concentration Camps

Their message: On May 21, 2007, Freedom House released a new report, Concentrations of Inhumanity.  The report written by Hidden Gulag author, David Hawk, carefully details the criminal acts prohibited by Article 7 of the ( Rome ) Statute of the International Criminal Court which are being carried out in North Korea on a massive scale.  You can download the full report at www.nkfreedomhouse.org. Freedom House and Liberty in North Korea (LiNK) cordially invite you to a panel discussion to...

Categories Anju Links/Human Rights/The Camps
October 23, 2006

U.N. Envoy: N. Korea Sends Handicapped to Camps

[Update:   Welcome Powerline readers!] Since I began blogging about North Korea, one of my core philosophies  has been  that nukes, diplomacy, and human rights aren’t logically separable. That’s because you deal with governments that possess a basic regard for human life differently from those that lack one. Governments in the first category share our desire to preserve life by avoiding war. Governments in the second category seek only to preserve and expand their own power; their motivations are not...

Categories "United" Nations/Human Rights/The Camps
November 8, 2005

Bush on N. Korea: ‘I worry about a society that is going hungry. I worry about forced labor camps.’

The Chosun Ilbo attended a press conference with GW Bush today (their reporter was originally planning to interview your correspondent–seriously) but under the circumstances I was understanding. Especially now that I hear this: On the eve of a fresh round of multilateral talks about North Korea’s nuclear program, U.S. President George W. Bush expressed strong concerns about the way the Stalinist country treats its people. “I have expressed my concerns about treatment of men, women and children in North Korea....

Categories Uncategorized
June 22, 2005

Chosun Ilbo Compares Army Barracks to “Concentration Camps”

The contagion of morally and historically moronic “concentration camp” analogies has spread to Korea. This time, shouts the Chosun Ilbo, Army barracks are concentration camps. Consider the trajectory of this discussion: from the tragic actions of a lone nut, we have arrived directly at this bewildering hyperbole. I’d be the last to dispute that the treatment of Korean soldiers deserves some sober inquiry and intelligent public debate. Comparing conditions there to places that were specifically designed to kill millions (rather...

Categories Uncategorized
June 22, 2005

Chosun Ilbo Compares Army Barracks to “Concentration Camps”

The contagion of morally and historically moronic “concentration camp” analogies has spread to Korea. This time, shouts the Chosun Ilbo, Army barracks are concentration camps. Consider the trajectory of this discussion: from the tragic actions of a lone nut, we have arrived directly at this bewildering hyperbole. I’d be the last to dispute that the treatment of Korean soldiers deserves some sober inquiry and intelligent public debate. Comparing conditions there to places that were specifically designed to kill millions (rather...

Categories Uncategorized
June 22, 2005

Chosun Ilbo Compares Army Barracks to “Concentration Camps”

The contagion of morally and historically moronic “concentration camp” analogies has spread to Korea. This time, shouts the Chosun Ilbo, Army barracks are concentration camps. Consider the trajectory of this discussion: from the tragic actions of a lone nut, we have arrived directly at this bewildering hyperbole. I’d be the last to dispute that the treatment of Korean soldiers deserves some sober inquiry and intelligent public debate. Comparing conditions there to places that were specifically designed to kill millions (rather...

Categories Uncategorized
April 30, 2005

Bush Calls Kim Jong Il a “Tyrant;” Mentions Concentration Camps

Coincidence? Having remained fairly silent on the North Korea Human Rights issue, President Bush had some direct words for the North, on this of all weeks: U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday poured oil on the flames by again calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-il a “tyrant”. He also said Kim was a “dangerous person” with “huge concentration camps” who “starves his people” and “threatens and brags.” Saying that George W. Bush “poured oil on the flames” is a...

Categories Uncategorized
April 29, 2005

Bush Calls Kim Jong Il a “Tyrant;” Mentions Concentration Camps

Coincidence? Having remained fairly silent on the North Korea Human Rights issue, President Bush had some direct words for the North, on this of all weeks: U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday poured oil on the flames by again calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-il a “tyrant”. He also said Kim was a “dangerous person” with “huge concentration camps” who “starves his people” and “threatens and brags.” Saying that George W. Bush “poured oil on the flames” is a...

Categories Uncategorized
April 29, 2005

Bush Calls Kim Jong Il a “Tyrant;” Mentions Concentration Camps

Coincidence? Having remained fairly silent on the North Korea Human Rights issue, President Bush had some direct words for the North, on this of all weeks: U.S. President George W. Bush on Thursday poured oil on the flames by again calling North Korean leader Kim Jong-il a “tyrant”. He also said Kim was a “dangerous person” with “huge concentration camps” who “starves his people” and “threatens and brags.” Saying that George W. Bush “poured oil on the flames” is a...

Categories Uncategorized