Up to 120,000 people are believed to be imprisoned without due process, under inhumane conditions, for political reasons; an estimated 400,000 have died in such camps. We should seek access to the camps for International Red Cross inspection teams, a list of those imprisoned and those responsible for their care, and information regarding their sentences and their conditions.

A special effort must be made to release family members detained in the camps without charge because of the policy of collective punishment for the kin of political prisoners. This practice and infanticide against inmates’ newborn children should be stopped immediately.

Our most recent report, North Korea’s Political Prison Camp, Kwan-li-so No. 18 (Pukch’ang), takes a look at satellite imagery of a North Korean political prison camp identified as Kwan-li-so No. 18 (Pukch’ang). 

In the event of political change in North Korea, international access to the prison camps will need to be given the highest priority. Prisoners constitute a “vulnerable group” to whom food, medicine and shelter should be provided immediately.

An orderly departure program from the camps will need to be implemented and resettlement arranged for those whose treatment or condition precludes re-integration into North Korean society. The International Labor Organization (ILO) will need to be brought in to review standards of work at the camps where reports of forced and slave labor and below-subsistence food rations have been producing large numbers of deaths.