In the political prison camps of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, the inmate population has been gradually eliminated through deliberate starvation, forced labour, executions, torture, rape and the denial of reproductive rights enforced …

There are four known political prison camps and over twenty prison labor camps spread throughout North Korea. Kim Il-sung, North Korea's first leader, modeled the prison camps on the Soviet gulags, and over the past six decades, North …

Jul 23, 2020 · North Korea’s prison system is a vast network used to punish disloyalty and maintain the iron grip of the Kim regime on its people. It is, however, also a system rife with exploitation of women, in which abusers have an unknown, limitless number of victims and virtually no risk of punishment.

Based on extensive interviews with over 60 defectors and more than 40 satellite photos of North Korean political prisoner camps, the report calls for the dismantlement of the vast North Korean gulag system in which 150,000 to 200,000 are incarcerated.

Below: Interactive map of North Korea's prison camps. Click on a prison icon to learn more about prisoner experiences at a particular prison.

Jul 11, 2023 · Understanding what ordinary life—or what may be considered ordinary—in North Korea is a challenge. A major difficulty in investigating “normality” is identifying the groups that can be considered ordinary.

Aug 17, 2017 · Derived from the Soviet gulag system in the 1950s, the political prison camps in North Korea and China were established for the purpose of containing political dissidence against their respective totalitarian governments.

Jan 21, 2018 · Derived from the Soviet gulag system in the 1950s, the political prison camps in North Korea and China were established for the purpose of containing political dissidence against their respective totalitarian governments.

Feb 13, 2025 · North Korea’s exclusion and subsequent boycott led to heightened tensions and even a terrorist attack against the South, the bombing of Korean Air Flight 858 over the Andaman Sea in 1987 being linked to North Korea’s attempt to sabotage the Games.

Jul 24, 2024 · The Songbun system in North Korea, akin to Apartheid, institutionalized racial discrimination and domination by the Kim regime, highlighting the superiority of the Korean race over others and disadvantageous individuals with Chinese or Japanese heritage or backgrounds.