Revealed: prison where North Korean dictators send troublesome relatives
Tucked away in an obscure valley is a prison camp unlike any other in the Hermit Kingdom – that holds members of the ruling Kim clan who have fallen from favour
It may not be ringed by barbed wire fences and guard towers, but the cluster of houses in a small valley close to the remote North Korean town of Hyanghari is a prison camp nonetheless.
Uniquely, the camp is used to hold senior members of the regime who have fallen foul of the ruling Kim family – and members of the Kim clan who are perceived as posing a threat to the dictators’ rule.
And, instead of the visible trappings of one of the regime’s “kwan-li-so” political penal colonies, the camp has a large detachment of guards to keep its inmates in line, defectors say.
WATCH: The refugee life of a North Korean defector in Hong Kong
There are other reasons they do not flee and attempt to cross the Chinese border, a little more than 30 miles to the north. Their relatives would undoubtedly suffer at the hands of a vengeful regime, but arguably the biggest incentive to sit tight and hope for the best is that the inmates’ conditions are relatively good. “They are not forced to work in the fields or mines and they don’t have to produce their own food as meals are delivered to them every day,” said Lim Cheon-yong, a former member of North Korea’s special forces who defected in 2000.
“That’s why it is known as ‘the resort’,” said Lim.
Other defectors who retain contacts in the North have made similar claims, including Kang Myung-do, who was the son-in-law of the North Korean premier when he escaped to South Korea in 1994, but Lim says he learned of a camp for the regime’s elite when he served in the military with the son of an inmate.
