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The “Prison Tales” series is based
on “The Reeducation Camp Stories” (the Zeitgeist, 2008) written
by Lee Jun Ha, a defector now taking refuge in China who gave
an account of his experiences over five years in the No. 22
Reeducation Camp in Hoiryeong.
Lee says, "I wrote them to share with the people of the world
the news about violations of human rights in North Korea’s reeducation
camps."
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The BeginningMy mother saved money by selling candies and eating only spinach porridge in order to visit me in the reeducation camp. Truly it seems you have to leave home before you can ever know the depth and warmth of parents’ love. I learned this truth during fi.. |
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“If your uncle lives then we’ll just hurt you a bit. But if he dies, what can we do? I swear you’ll die, too”A PSA officer slammed the metal door of the waiting room. I did not think my uncle had died. Why would a person who had been perfectly normal when we d.. |
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After five months of life in the detention house, with all of its changes, I was swallowed up with scorn and resentment. When I had first arrived there I was placed in cell no.3, where I was greeted by the faces of 8 other prisoners, all staring me out. “Well now,.. |
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Following the other inmates I bent my knees, placed my hands on my back and put my head on the floor. The inspection started from cell number one. “Sir, cell one cleaning and arrangement is finished. May we sit up?”Each room was checked in exactly the same way. A.. |
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I had been in the detention house just eight days when mom first came to visit. It was about 11 in the morning when the block guard came into my cell. “Jun Ha! Word has it that your mom tried to block the car of the Safety Agency Chief at the front gate. She was in.. |
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After I’d returned to the reeducation camp, Mom and other relatives continued to send food—none of which I received. At the camp, if you wanted to get food delivered to an inmate, you had to give alcohol or a pack of cigarettes to each of the guards. Mom, liv.. |
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A heavy rain had been falling throughout the morning at the reeducation camp. Outside the large metal entrance-gate a shabby looking 19 year old boy was pacing, soaked to the bone. This was me, Lee Jun Ha, condemned for a murder that had been nothing more than an.. |
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The No. 12 Reeducation Camp can be found about four kilometers east along the mountain slopes from a small rural town called “Jeongeo-ri,” which is itself about 12 kilometers from Hoiryeong in the direction of the big east coast port of Chongjin. Travelling to Cho.. |
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Except those that security officials use, the prison facilities are so poor it is almost impossible to imagine. The basic necessities and sanitary facilities are from an altogether more primitive age. When I was put in prison, the cells were worse than a pigsty. T.. |
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On my 20th day in the camp, the interview finally began. I had heard that the Security Department Secretary was looking for me, so I went there, since it couldn’t be avoided anyway, bowed and kneeled. After a few questions just for the sake of asking, the secretary.. |
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