The camp is located near Chongori, a little village in Musan-ri, Hoeryong county, at the road and railroad almost halfway between Hoeryong and Chongjin, North Hamgyong province in North Korea. Chongori camp is situated at the end of a small valley southeast from the main valley in Pungsan-ri and Chongori.
Description
Chongori concentration camp is a large prison compound, around long and wide. The main section is surrounded by a high wall, while the branch offices are surrounded with barbed wire and an electrified fence. In 2005 there used to be around 2000 prisoners, mostly non-political criminals, but often sentenced there for desperate offences such as stealing food. They are guarded by around 300 prison guards with machine guns. From 2006 on the number of prisoners increased significantly, as many defectors deported from China were arrested in Chongori camp. Theoretically, prisoners should be released after reeducation through labour and serving their sentence, but since the prison sentences are very long and the conditions are very harsh, many do not survive their prison sentences. A former prisoner estimates, that during his eight months of detention, around 800 prisoners died from hard labour and sub-subsistence level food rations.
Purpose
The main purpose of Chongori camp is to punish people for usual crimes or political crimes such as illegal border crossing. The prisoners are also used as slave workers, who have to do hard and dangerous work 14 hours a day. There is a copper ore mine, a logging section, a furniture factory and a farming section in the camp.
The prisoners in Chongori concentration camp live in crowded, dirty, insect-infested rooms without heating, while there is just one washing room for 1000 prisoners. Because of these bad hygienic conditions, in the summer of 2003 around 190 prisoners died from an infectious disease according to Lee Jun Ha. 70 prisoners sleep in a room made for 20, lying on the floor without pillows or blankets. Prisoners get only 140 grams of rice three times a day, while being forced to do hard labour such as logging with iron chains. Often prisoners are killed or crippled in work accidents, as they have to do dangerous work with primitive means. A former prisoner reported of accidental deaths every few days in the furniture factory due to antiquated machines and prisoners seldom getting more than five hours of sleep per night. Virtually every day after work and before getting dinner, prisoners have to engage in mutual criticism sessions and get less food in case of flaws or shortcomings. Prisoners are so hungry, that they eat even grass and corn in cow feces. Lee Jun Ha estimates that around 30 to 40 people died from malnutrition, work accidents or torture each month and were burnt on a nearby mountain. Prisoners are regularly subject to beatings, torture and inhuman treatment, arbitrarily at the guards' mercy. In case a prisoner breaks a rule, he is tortured and confined many days or weeks in a solitary cell, only in area, where he could not stretch his legs. As additional punishment, they get only of the usual food rations. Summary executions were carried out several times per year in case of escape attempts. Kwon Hyo-jin has painted the various forms of torture he witnessed, such as “pigeon torture”, “crane torture”, “aeroplane torture”, and “knee joint torture”, in a series of drawings. Other human rights violations and forced labour in Chongori camp are featured in further drawings for an exhibition on political prison camps in North Korea. The camp has reportedly publicly executed inmates, without due process.
Prisoners (Witnesses)
Lee Jun Ha was imprisoned because he accidentally killed his uncle.
Kwon Hyo-jin was imprisoned because he helped defectors to get to China. He is an artist in ceramics, painting and calligraphy and painted drawings of his experience in Chongori camp.
