North Korea Concentration Camps

“I was born and raised in a North Korea death camp. I had no idea of the outside world, and I thought everybody was born in these conditions. They tortured us, and forced us to eat disgusting food. Most nights I couldn’t even sleep, there wasn’t enough room. Guards told us they had the right to beat, and we believed them. Everything was wrong with those camps (As/ls).” This is what Mr. Kim Quael Ele said after he escaped from one of these death camps. He was there because of the three-generation punishment rule, which says if you commit a crime, three generations after you have to serve for your crime (Urban). North Korea camps violated human rights such as rape against women, and putting someone in jail without real reason. North Korea could have stopped these concentration camps if they had freedom of speech, better-equipped government workers, and proper country leaders.

It may not seem that hard to escape these camps. This is one of the first rules that they tell them at these camps (As/ls). Escape was not an option for them, and only a few people have ever escaped these death camps (Cooper). A major reason for people being put in these camps is political dissent (North Korea). This means citizens of North Korea cannot speak out against the government, and don’t have freedom of speech like we do in the United States. If they break this rule their sentence can range, but it’s usually for life and two generations after you. The concentration camps have no exact date of opening, but we can guess it has been in existence since before the 2000’s. In America we have freedom of speech due to the first amendment, but in North Korea they do not have serious rules to point out they can speak freely. North Korea’s population takes “gossiping” about their leaders very seriously. So, people may not have an opinion on who North Korea’s leaders are, so they are stuck with some of the worst leaders.

The second cause for these unpleasant camps is police corruption. In the world, there are these lists of rules the government must follow (Das). Although, there are no real world leaders to make sure everyone is following them, so it is really up to the country to decide if they go to jail or not (North Korea obviously doesn’t put them in jail). In this handbook, it states that police officers cannot beat, or stunt growth. They are also not supposed to rape, or starve inmates, or put people in kail who don’t really belong there. Hence they are violating this rule with the three generation punishment Police officers in North Korea violate all these things (Das). These camps may have been like jails in the United States if they followed these rules. However, people are getting injured and killed because they are getting beat and starved. Kim Jun Un stopped reporting deaths happening at camp, and we can guess that is because way too many people are dying too fast (Lam). We do know everyone at these camps are in danger, but we do not know how many have actually died.

The third and final reason why there are these concentration camps is because of their leaders. Kim Jun Un was not the first leader with the last name Un. Kim Jun Un’s father, Kim Jun Un III was the leader from when his father died, until he died. The Un family has ruled North Korea since the mid 1900’s, and has made a lot of rules, and changed some things in this country. These concentration camps were made around 1965, and that was when the Un family had control. Hoeryong Concentration Camp was created around the time of 1965 (Hoeryong). 1965 was during the time period of the Un families rein. So, we can guess they are the cause of this. We do not know why the Un family did this, but they created these camps. The Un family approves of police officers and government workers beating citizens. We have jails too, but we treat ours so much better.

These concentration camps are the worst things to happen in North Korea. We could have ended these camps if we North Korea had the right to speak openly, properly equipped government workers, and the right family to lead their country.