Long-standing practices of baby-killing in the camps of North Korea

Accounts by eye-witnesses

(see map of the camps location)

8 January 2002

1. The system of concentration camps in North Korea

Despite the growing awareness of the existence of concentration camps in North Korea, our knowledge of the situation there is still very new and rather limited due to the shroud of secrecy covering the country and its regime. To be able to reconstruct pictures of existing practices of torture and inhuman treatment in concentration camps, Human Rights Without Frontiers has drawn on testimonies of a small number of people who have defected in the last ten years and have had the courage to share their information.

We use the term concentration camps fully aware of a possible analogy with the camps existing in Nazi Germany and the former Soviet Union. By avoiding other terms such as reform institutions (as called in the Criminal Code of North Korea), re-educational and correctional institutions, or detention camps, this report seeks to designate a system of ten large camps, which are spread through the country and are estimated to house between 150,000 and 200,000 inmates. As a result of brutal conditions, severe nutritional deficiencies and frequent arbitrary executions, the Centre for the Advancement of North Korean Human Rights estimates that some 400,000 prisoners have died in these camps since they have been established by Kim Il Sung in 1972.

2. Babies killing found to be a standard practice in North Korean camps

The system of concentration camps in North Korea has a political purpose: to silence the slightest expressions of dissent by using torture, terror, forced confessions, and executions.

The ultimate epitome of the highest level of dehumanisation reigning in the concentration camps of North Korea are the reports of compulsory abortion, disappearance of newborn children and the systematic killings of babies by the North Korean authorities in the presence of their mothers. Unborn and newly-born babies are not spared the qualification of being "enemies of state" as their mothers are North Korean defectors who have been repatriated to North Korea against their will. The a priori incrimination of unborn babies transpires in the words of a guard in Yodok camp (point 7 on the map of concentration camps below) who admonished a pregnant woman, "How can a counter-revolutionary and an enemy of the people such as yourself dare to bear a child?"

The first reports of infanticide committed by North Korean authorities were provided independently by two former North Korean prisoners and two former concentration camp guards in 1995 and 1996. However, their witness accounts were considered too shocking to be true or just isolated cases.

During the first half of 2000, the Chinese authorities cracked down on the North Korean defectors hiding in China, with particular emphasis on women, under the excuse of stopping human trafficking. As a result, thousands of North Korean women, some of them already happily married in China, were arrested and handed over to North Korea against their will, including many pregnant women.

Throughout 2000-2001, several new reports and interviews provided details in different ways and for different locations in North Korea. All accounts certainly converged on the fact that North Korean authorities carry out systematic killings of babies. Thus the notion of infanticide in North Korea as an isolated incident was dismissed.

Human Rights Without Frontiers has collected the testimonies of some 20 eye-witnesses giving accounts of a long-standing practice spanning decades. We have checked and cross-checked their accounts with the view of outlining some repetitive patterns with regard to location and methods.

(point 1 on the map of concentration camps)

Case 1

• Date of interview: 23 June 2001
• Details: a young North Korean woman interviewed at her hiding place in China

"I have witnessed baby killing while in detention in North Korea"

There was a nineteen year old pregnant woman prisoner in the camp. She screamed with pain and said that she was either in the eighth or ninth month of pregnancy. Her plead was ignored and she was forced to line up with other women for the days work. She kept groaning and cried out for help. It was obvious that she was laboring and, finally, she was spared from the work. When we returned from work she was still sick. Next morning around eight oclock she gave birth to a baby while an elderly woman from the Onsong district helped her. The camp guard immediately ordered us to kill the just born infant. The eldest woman had to cover the infant with blankets as instructed and to avoid punishment. The young mother recovered the next morning. Perhaps, her young body responded well. However, the elderly woman got sick from the shocking experience of killing a baby.

In the meantime another pregnant woman gave birth to a baby. The woman prisoners were also told to kill it. So, some of us soaked a vinyl bag with water and covered babys face. Baby was wrapped up in a blanket and left on the cold floor to die. It took several hours before it died. The body was taken to a dump area nearby and buried. In these stressful days in the camp four more babies were born and they all met the same fate as described earlier

(point 4 on the map of concentration camps)

Case 2

• Date of interview: 18 April 2000
• Details: The witness is in her fifties and was interviewed in Yanbian City of China

"Help! North Korea is killing infants of prisoners!"

Not only that babies were delivered. They lay on their stomachs until they died. Otherwise their noses would be blocked with vinyl to induce instant death. Seven or eight babies were delivered in a month at the camp. Their bodies would be thrown to animals to be gorged.

Security officers kicked bellies of pregnant women whose gestation was less than five months. Officers bragged they were "obstetricians." As the women were screaming out of severe pain, they ordered them to run around the campground to induce quick abortion. A woman from Hamhung City lost a four-month-old fetus. She couldnt afford to take time for recuperation. She had to go out to work immediately.

Yodok Camp No. 15

(point 7 on the map of concentration camps)

Case 3

• Details: the interviewed witness is author of "Yodok List" published in 1995 about the murderous treatment of prisoners in North Korea and co-author of "The Festival of a Great King".

If a pregnancy is discovered, the security officers prick the womans belly with a stick to induce abortion. Or, they take her to the office, throw her against walls and prick the belly until she aborts. If a woman is found in her sixth or seventh month of pregnancy, she is taken away to an unknown location. She is never seen again.

Hoeryong Camp No. 22

(point 3 on the map of concentration camps)

Case 4

• Date of interview: 2 May 2000
• Details: a refugee woman was interviewed at her hiding place in Yanji City, China. Four weeks after the interview, her hiding place was raided by the Chinese police and she had since been missing.

There were two pregnant, twenty something women locked up with us in our cell, and the guards were a lot meaner to them than they were to us in terms of physical abuse. For instance, the guards would constantly stab their bellies with ends of their clubs. They would actually try things to end their pregnancies, like dragging them out and pouring cold water on them all of a sudden.

Anyhow, both of the women were expecting in April, and one of them went into labour on April 15th, and had a relatively smooth delivery thanks to the help of older women in the cell. A guard rushed into our cell the moment he heard that she had given birth. He took the child from the mother's arms, put it on the floor outside the cell, and threw us a piece of wet vinyl. The guard threatened us as he slammed the door shut, saying that we would get a taste of his merciless club if we were unwilling to do away with the baby. Needless to say, we were to suffocate the child with the wet vinyl on its face, just like five other children before this one, according to a woman who had been in prison the longest. And that was how the baby's short and unhappy life came to an end.

Case 5

• Date of interview: 19 September 2000
• Details: the woman was interviewed in her hiding place in Yanji, North East China

On the day of my arrival at the detention camp, there were 7 pregnant girls, mostly between 21-3 years old. The cells were full of fleas, lice, bed bugs and all kinds of insects and all kinds of patients including paratyphoid patients. During the next few days, they delivered babies in the cell. Seven strong babies were born owing to their mothers who had had good food in China. When babies were born, the babies and baby cord were wrapped up in a vinyl sheet and placed outside upside down to die. A senior woman who killed 3 babies became seriously ill and was sent home to die there. The next woman who was selected to do the job refused to do so. Yes, she could help delivery but not killing. A baby was born and wrapped up with vinyl and left on the floor to die. The seventh baby survived three days still crying. The babys mother was released without the baby. The surviving baby was killed by suffocating nose and mouth with palm.

Kyongsong Camp No. 11

(point 5 on the map of concentration camps)

Case 6

• Details: the interviewed is former guard at life detention settlements

The following incident took place in October 1987, about a month after I arrived at Life Detention Settlement No. 11. Sgt. Man-sun Kim was the deputy commander of my platoon and had sexual relations with a young female prisoner named Choi, an accountant in the 19th Unit. Sgt. Kim was handsome and kind-hearted and she wanted to have his child. She was about to deliver a baby, hidden in the farm, when she was discovered and arrested by security officers. She delivered a baby under torture. The security officers threw the newly-born infant to a dog during the course of the torture.

Chongsong Camp No. 13

(point 2 on the map attached of concentration camps)

Case 7

• Details: the interviewed is former guard at life detention settlements

A young girl prisoner, an inventory clerk, was caught pregnant at settlement No. 13 in the fall of 1989. Under torture, she confessed the name of a senior security officer.

The investigators were furious so they cut open her belly, took out the baby and killed it by stamping on it. Then, they pushed an electric pole into her vagina and killed her by electrocution.

The investigators found out that the security officer was involved in sexual relations with other prisoners and privately helping them. He killed himself with his pistol in his office. This incident was regarded as a disgrace to all the security officers who knew about this and tried to cover it up.

Case 8

• Details: the interviewed is former guard at life detention settlements

Delivering a baby is absolutely prohibited in the detention settlement in order to control the number of reactionary elements. In most cases, husbands are separated from their wives and therefore it is rare that a prisoner becomes pregnant. There are cases of pregnancy, however, resulting from sexual contact between female prisoners and security officers or guards by rape or willingness on the part of female prisoners for favors.

If a female prisoner is found to be pregnant, she is kicked at or sent to do hard work to induce miscarriage. If a miscarriage does not result from repeated mistreatment of the expectant woman, she is executed secretly. All female prisoners are aware of this practice and try very hard to abort if they become pregnant one way or another.

The security officers or guards responsible for pregnancies are often covered up. There are cases when they are fired and expelled from the party or demoted for causing a female prisoner to be pregnant. Nevertheless, they are punished for having sexual relations with the enemy, not for the violation of women.