Chungsan concentration camp
Chungsan concentration camp (also spelled Jeungsan, Jungsan or Joongsan) is a reeducation camp in North Korea. The official name of the camp is Kyo-hwa-so No. 11 (Reeducation camp no. 11).
Location
The camp is located in Chungsan county, in South Pyongan province of North Korea. It is situated at 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 e.g. theft, prostitution or unauthorized trade. 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 female 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.