North Korea has renovated facilities at the Paekto-ri political prison camp in Sinuiju to improve health conditions for prisoners. The decision was prompted by concerns that released prisoners would reveal information about the camp’s previously dilapidated condition.
A source in North Korea told The Daily NK on Monday that the prison camp submitted a written proposal in June last year asking for minimal replacement and repair of facilities. It carried out those renovations after the Ministry of Social Security’s Corrections Bureau approved the proposal in December.
The main construction was completed last month, with only minor incidental interior work remaining, the source said.
“Old prison cells, surveillance facilities and workshops have been demolished and replaced with new ones,” the source said. “This measure serves many purposes, including improving prisoners’ living conditions, preventing escapes, increasing security and surveillance, and securing the interior workspace.”
The source further said that “circular surveillance cameras have been connected to cables installed in each room, with the footage appearing on LCD televisions in the surveillance rooms.” This means that the camp used the renovation to install more surveillance equipment using CCTV.
Prisoners engage in forced labor
With the renovation of the camp, the prisoners’ work environment also changed.
“In the past, the prisoners were divided into major work teams such as tanning, sewing, handicrafts, knitting, false eyelashes, wigs, livestock, agriculture, vegetable production, cooking and guard duty, but now, in order to improve the camp’s self-reliance and prevent escapes, the outdoor work staff has been reduced and the indoor work teams have been increased,” the source said.
As a result, the camp now focuses more on high-value products such as clothing and handicrafts rather than agriculture, and prisoner work hours have been reduced from twelve to ten.
“The number of prisoners in the camp has increased slightly,” the source said. “It can accommodate more people because of its efficient prisoner cells and because prisoners can use indoor work areas within the camp’s sections.”
After the construction, however, the camp sent prisoners to damp cells where the cement had not yet dried, forcing some to lay plastic sheets or clothes on the floor.
“Since the camp made the prisoners live in the cells before the cement dried, the prisoners’ blankets and clothes would be soaked by the moisture in the morning unless they put plastic on the floor before sleeping,” the source said.
Meanwhile, the Paekto-ri Political Prison Camp received rice recently. Commenting on this, the source said that “unless the Corrections Bureau of the Ministry of Social Security changes its regulations on providing rations to political prison camps, there is unlikely to be any major change in the food prisoners eat. He added, however, that the camps “could now provide prisoners with pure rice instead of rice mixed with corn on major holidays or memorial days.”
The Daily NK works with a network of sources in North Korea, China, and elsewhere. For security reasons, their identities remain anonymous.
Please send any comments or questions about this article to dailynkenglish@uni-media.net.
September 25, 2024 at 01:00PM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)