North korea: North Korea is operating four political prison camps, where up to 65,000 people are believed to be imprisoned and placed under forced labor, a report showed Friday.
According to Yonhap News Agency, North Korea is currently operating four prison camps -- Camp 14, Camp 16, Camp 18, and Camp 25 -- in South Phyongan Province and North Hamgyong Province. This information comes from a report by the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification (KINU).
The report has been updated from its 2013 version with U.S. satellite imagery and testimonies from North Korean defectors. North Korea has long been identified as a significant human rights violator, with thousands held in political prison camps and strict control over external information.
Camp 14, established in Kaechon, South Phyongan Province, in 1965, expanded after followers of Jang Song-thaek, an uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un who was executed in 2013, were transferred from Camp 18. Camp 18 was initially in Pukchang County of North Hamgyong Province but relocated to Kaechon in 2006.
Camp 16 is situated near the Punggye-ri nuclear testing site in North Hamgyong Province. Experts have suggested that inmates might be used for labor at the nuclear facility. Camp 25 in Chongjin, North Hamgyong Province, differs from other political prisons by resembling a village from the outside and can host around 5,800 detainees.
The report estimates that around 53,000 to 65,000 people are detained across the four facilities, a decrease from the 80,000 to 120,000 estimate in the 2013 report. This decline is attributed not to improvements in human rights but to the closure of Camp 15, known for its brutality.
North Koreans are imprisoned in these facilities for acting against Kim Jong-un's orders, committing anti-state crimes, or engaging in religious activities. North Korea has previously denied the existence of these camps but indirectly acknowledged them during a U.N. review in Geneva in November.