Chosŏn'gŭl 증산 제11호교화소 Chosŏn'gŭl 증산 정치범 수용소 | Hancha 甑山第十一號敎化所 Hancha 甑山政治犯收容所 | |
 | ||
Revised Romanization Jeungsan Je11ho Gyohwaso McCune–Reischauer Chŭngsan Che11ho Kyohwaso | ||
Chungsan concentration camp (also spelled Jeungsan, Jungsan or Joongsan) is a reeducation camp in North Korea. Its official name is Kyo-hwa-so No. 11 (Reeducation camp no. 11).
Contents
Location
The camp is in Chungsan county, in South Pyongan province of North Korea. It is un the Yellow Sea coast, around 50 km (31 mi) west of Pyongyang.
Description
Chungsan camp is a sprawling largely women's penitentiary with between 3,300 and 5,000 prisoners. Since 1999 the camp is used to detain female defectors, which account for 50–60% of the prisoners, while others are incarcerated for theft, prostitution, unauthorized trade, etc. The camp is surrounded by agricultural plots, where the prisoners have to grow rice and corn for delivery to the Ministry of Public Security.
Human rights situation
The food rations are very small. According to a former prisoner, one third of the prisoners died from combinations of malnutrition, disease, and forced labor within a year. Dead prisoners are buried in mass graves on a nearby hill. She reported that the prisoners were often beaten with iron bars, if they did not work hard enough. She got very ill, because her wounds from the beatings got infected.
In interviews other former prisoners reported about