A woman in her 50s from Hoeryong, North Hamgyong province, is traveling to various locations across North Korea where political prison camps are believed to exist, desperately searching for her daughter who was allegedly sent to one of these facilities.
According to a Daily NK source in the province recently, “A female resident in her 50s, identified as A, from Hoeryong is visiting all known prison camp locations in search of her daughter. She only knows that her daughter was transferred to a prison camp in late 2023, but doesn’t know which specific facility.”
The source explained that A was arrested by the Ministry of State Security in May 2023 after someone informed authorities about her activities as a money transfer broker. During the arrest, security officers searched her home and confiscated 200,000 Chinese yuan (around $27,500), but she had hidden her Chinese mobile phone elsewhere, preventing its seizure.
Following her mother’s arrest, A’s daughter, who is in her 20s, decided to engage in “information trading” to raise bribe money for the security department. In North Korea, there’s a saying that “with enough bribes, even murder charges can be resolved,” so the daughter was convinced that money was the only way to save her mother from custody, prompting her to take this dangerous risk.
Eventually, the daughter was also arrested by the security department, but ironically, A was released during this time. After her release, A sold her house and gathered all her assets, exhausting every possible method, but failed to secure her daughter’s release.
The daughter was sent to a political prison camp in late 2023 for “anti-state activities” related to leaking internal information.
“After learning that her daughter had been taken to a prison camp, A was bedridden for several months and subsequently began showing signs of mental instability,” the source said. “Since February this year, she has been visiting every known prison camp location in search of her daughter.”
Most people sent to political prison camps cannot even be confirmed dead or alive. Nevertheless, A continues to wander around areas where political prison camps are believed to exist, desperately hoping that her daughter is still alive, even though she knows her efforts may be futile.
“People around A are shaking their heads, saying what kind of tragedy is this where someone loses their child and becomes destitute overnight just for trying to make a living,” the source said. “As long as people are forced to engage in illegal activities to survive, and surveillance and crackdowns on such illegal activities continue, tragedies like what A’s family experienced will inevitably repeat.”
April 18, 2025 at 06:00AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)