Kwan-li-so No.15

It is a little known fact that there are countries where concentration camps still operate to this day. North Korea detains approximately 150-200 000 political prisoners in six camps, one of the best known of which is the one at Yodok. Little is known about the conditions which obtain in the camp, as there are very few survivors. The inmates are imprisoned without trial, the majority of them together with their entire families (spouses, children and parents). 

Around 30-40 prisoners live in each dilapidated building in an unheated 50m2 space, with winter temperatures as low as -20° C. They have no shoes, underwear or change of clothing and no sanitary facilities. There is no medical provision. Food consists of 100-200g of cornmeal mush three times a day. Every year around 20% of the inmates die of starvation, while workplace accidents are also common and many also are tortured to death. The prisoners do hard physical labour from half-past five in the morning until eight in the evening (while primary school aged children work from early afternoon)  after which they undergo ideological indoctrination until 11.00 at night every day of the week.