Convicted criminals and
minor offenders in North Korea are incarcerated in
detention centers, labor reformatories, prisons
and concentration camps, the last of which are
dubbed control centers.
Offenders of
relatively light rules and regulations are kept in
detention centers before being referred to the
Ministry of People's Security (the police).
Detained there are those who have absented
themselves from their jobs without permit, or who
have boarded trains without a pass. Widely known
detention centers are those located in Kanri, a
key railroad center in the Pyongyang suburbs, and
in Sinsongchon, South Pyongan Province.
Detention ranges in length from a few
weeks to several months. Detainees undergo various
physical labor and political indoctrination
courses. Incidents of detention in this category
of correctional institutions are not entered in
one's criminal records.
Once
convicted, criminals are sent to either labor
reformatories or prisons. Detained in
reformatories are offenders guilty of violence,
thievery or defamation, among other crimes, who
have been given prison terms of no more than two
years. Some minor offenders are incarcerated in
reformatories without undergoing due judicial
process, but under summary decisions made by the
Ministry of People's Security. Those who have been
deported from China after fleeing the country
merely in search of food are recently being sent
to labor reformatories, according to North Korea
watchers here.
Reformatories are
classified into two: one accommodating those
serving one year and the other those serving up to
two years. The former is often called No. 22
reformatory, and the latter No. 66 or No. 88
reformatories. Famous among them are No. 22
reformatory in Orang, North Hamgyong province, No.
66 reformatory in Chonma, North Pyongan province,
and No. 88 reformatory in Wonsan, Kangwon
province. Inmates there are given arduous physical
labor and harsh treatment aimed at indoctrinating
them. Hence they are called labor drill units as
well.
Prisons accommodate convicts
sentenced to two-year terms or more. They are also
of two kinds; one accommodating general offenders
and the other political criminals. While the No.
7, or Reformation Bureau of the Ministry of
People’s Security administers reformatories and
general offender prisons, prisons housing
political criminals are managed by the State
Security Agency (intelligence). Once sent to
political prisons, few ever get out of them.
Notorious are prisons located in Chongjin, North
Hamgyong province; Kaechon, South Pyongan; and
Sunghori, Pyongyang, the last of which was
relocated a few years ago when its existence
became known to the public.
Kept in
concentration camps are political criminals
branded as anti-party, or anti-revolutionary
sectarians and their families. In the North, they
are often called a numerical control center,
specially restricted area or just restricted area.
Like political-offender prisons, they are
administered by the State Security Agency and
inmates are given no access to judicial procedures
or protest.
Concentration camps are
divided into two: completely restricted areas and
areas of possible conversion. Prisoners put in
completely restricted areas are not permitted to
return to normal life for good, have their human
rights infringed upon and are subject to cruel
labor, according to North Korea watchers. Those
kept in areas of possible conversion have some
chance of resuming a normal life. They can listen
to No. 3 broadcasting station, the radio sets
hooked to which have only one fixed dial, and
their children may attend schools. No. 15 control
center located in Odok, South Hamgyong province,
alone has both completely restricted and
possible-conversion areas.
Kim Kwang In
kki@chosun.com
2001- 8-31 |
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