According to Hwang Jang-yop, the former leader of the Workers’ Party of Korea, Pukchang camp is the oldest North Korean prison camp and was already erected by 1958. Like in Yodok camp there is one section for political prisoners in lifelong detention and another part similar to reeducation camps. Possibly these sections were completely separated earlier and therefore there are the two names Pukchang and Tukchang. While all the other political prison camps belong to the State Security Department, Pukchang camp is run by the Interior Ministry. In some cases political prisoners were deported to Kaechon camp, while their relatives were deported to Pukchang camp. Only based on their kinship they are classified as politically unreliable and are imprisoned without any lawsuit or conviction. The camp is around in area and is surrounded by a fence. There are several prison labor colonies with barracks for the prisoners and housing for the guards: the 4th, 5th, and 6th divisions. Family members are often allowed to live together. Around 50,000 prisoners live in Pukchang concentration camp. Kim Yong reported the presence of foreign prisoners, but there is no other source to confirm this.
Purpose
Pukchang camp isolates politically unreliable persons from society. It was established to exploit the prisoners with hard and dangerous labor. Within the camp borders there are at least five coal mines, where all capable prisoners have to work from early in the morning to late in the evening. Furthermore, there is a cement factory and some other factories.
Kim Hye-sook has described the human rights situation in detail and testified to the Canadian Parliament and to the British Parliament. Rules in Pukchang camp seem to be slightly less strict compared to the human rights situation in other political prison camps. But also in this camp, prisoners are shot in cases of escape attempts, theft of food or violations of instructions. Kim witnessed more than 100 public executions per year with prisoners being tortured and then shot or hanged as a deterrent to the other prisoners. The most common causes of death are malnutrition, work accidents and illnesses. Kim reported that in the 1990s her family only received of corn per month and occasionally some bean paste or salt. In order to survive they had to search for edible plants, leaves and insects. She saw many bodies of starved or executed people lying all around the roads and even reported cases of cannibalism. Since the prisoners have to work 16–18 hours in the mines every day without any protection, after few years most suffer from pneumoconiosis and many die from it. Kim developed a pulmonary tumor because of the inhaled dust. Work accidents often lead to limb amputations. Many children have frostbite, because they have no shoes and have to go barefoot even in winter. Kim reported that the prisoners have no human rights and are treated at the guards’ mercy. To humiliate the prisoners, the guards would force them to get on their knees, and then spit into the prisoner's mouths and make them swallow the spit. If prisoners do not immediately obey, they are savagely beaten. The prisoners are monitored almost continuously by security agents and are urged to spy on each other and to denounce other prisoners.
Reported closure and re-opening
According to some sources, the camp ceased operations in 2006. The satellite images however show that the mine inside the camp is still operating with civilian laborers. It is likely that some parts of the camp still hold political prisoners, but most of the former camp area has stopped functioning as a labor camp. In 2016 it was reported that camp 18 had either been re-opened or merged with camp 14 on the other side of the river. Satellite images showed a new security perimeter and increased activity in the area. There also seemed to be an operational ferry between the two camps, giving the suggestion that the camps may have merged.
Prisoners (Witnesses)
Kim Yong was at first imprisoned in Kaechon camp, when his relationship to his father and brother, who both were executed as alleged US spies, was identified. Later he was relocated to Pukchang after intervention of his former boss.
Kim Hye Sook was imprisoned at the age of 13 years, because her grandfather tried to escape to South Korea.
