Death by Fifty

Every time the subject has been raised at the negotiating table – by anybody – the negotiators on the other side of the table go ballistic in a frenzy of angry denial. Still, there are satellite photos and sufficient escapees and even former guards who confirm the ugly truth: North Korea maintains slave labor camps – punitive institutions – where an estimated 200,000 are held. Beatings, malnutrition and disease pretty much guarantee death by fifty years of age. The July 20^th Washington Post: “‘Talking to them about the camps is something that has not been possible,’ said David Straub, a senior official in the State Department's office of Korean affairs during the Bush and Clinton years. There have been no such meetings since President Obama took office… ‘They go nuts when you talk about it,’ said Straub, who is now associate director of Korean studies at Stanford University.”

Prisoner/slaves are making uniforms, growing crops, felling trees or toiling in mines… in isolated mountain camps where no outsiders are ever permitted. Seven days a week. The Post pieced together a report on what this horror really looks like. “North Korea has operated political prison camps for more than 50 years, twice as long as the Gulag in the former Soviet Union.”

Five camps: Camp 22 is near the Chinese border, where one former guard noted, “We were taught to look at inmates as pigs.” Brutal beatings are routine in this facility that houses an estimated 50,000. Camp 16, which borders a nuclear test site and is not too far from the sea in the north east, is a smaller facility that seems to house 10,000 – government personnel, who have fallen from grace, and their families. Camp 15 is in the central region, home to an estimated 50,000, but seems to be the camp from which release is more likely. Another 50,000 prisoners, accorded minor privileges, are housed in Camp 18, but death from beatings and malnutrition are still common. Adjacent Camp14, also home to 50,000, seems to be the camp of no release. Everyone is strictly controlled; no one leaves alive. They work till they drop dead or are killed. Escapees that are caught are routinely hanged before an assembly of prisoners to make sure no one misses the lesson.

What is life like in these horrible camps? The Post: “Eating a diet of mostly corn and salt, they lose their teeth, their gums turn black, their bones weaken and, as they age, they hunch over at the waist. Most work 12- to 15-hour days until they die of malnutrition-related illnesses, usually around the age of 50. Allowed just one set of clothes, they live and die in rags, without soap, socks, underclothes or sanitary napkins…

“But high-resolution satellite photographs, now accessible to anyone with an Internet connection, reveal vast labor camps in the mountains of North Korea. The photographs corroborate survivors’ stories, showing entrances to mines where former prisoners said they worked as slaves, in-camp detention centers where former guards said uncooperative prisoners were tortured to death and parade grounds where former prisoners said they were forced to watch executions. Guard towers and electrified fences surround the camps, photographs show.”

And with North Korea’s recent testing of ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, dealing with this horror has moved to a diplomatic back burner. The Post: “Containing that crisis has monopolized the Obama administration's dealings with North Korea. The camps, for the time being, are a non-issue. ‘Unfortunately, until we get a handle on the security threat, we can't afford to deal with human rights,’ said Peter Beck, a former executive director of the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.”

I’m Peter Dekom, and it bothers me a lot.