This made me cry.
Reliving the horrors of CAMP 22
Whole families killed in North Korean gas chambers, says defector
HIS allegations were startling. He said he saw an entire North Korean family being gassed to death.
Mr Kwon Hyok, a defector from the North and now living in South Korea, made these allegations in a documentary aired by the BBC last night.
Mr Kwon Hyok, 45, said he was head of security at prison camp 22 in Haengyong, in the north-eastern part of the country.
It is one of a network of prisons in North Korea modelled on the Soviet Union's Gulag, where hundreds of thousands of prisoners are held.
CHEMICAL EXPERIMENTS
He told Ms Olenka Frenkiel, the reporter, how he witnessed chemical experiments being carried out on political prisoners. These took place in specially constructed chambers hidden within the camp.
He claimed that different gases are being tested there, including one called Vinyla, related to the North Korean artificial fibre, Vinalon.
In the documentary titled Access To Evil, he described the chambers - glass rooms within a room - sealed and with a ventilation shaft that pumps gas inside.
Above, there is a viewing gallery where North Korean scientists observe the death throes of their victims.
London's Daily Telegraph published details of the interview in which he said that the youngest victims are children, and the eldest are in their 60s.
They were selected by others and brought to the chamber, where they were stripped naked and given a medical check-up.
They had to be free of disease before entering the chamber.
Mr Kwon Hyok drew the layout for the reporter, explaining that individual victims stood around the edges of the chamber, while families were gathered in the centre, where they clung together.
'Even though they were dying,' he said, 'I saw the parents trying to save their children by giving them mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
'The most unforgettable scene I remember was when I watched an entire family being killed.
'They were put inside the chamber and I saw them all suffocate to death.
'The last person to die was the youngest son who was crying for his parents and eventually died.'
What were his feelings when he saw the children die?
The former prison chief said: 'I had no sympathy at all because I was taught to think that they were all enemies of our country and that all our country's problems were their fault.
'So I felt they deserved to die.'
In fact, most of the prisoners have not been charged with any crime, Mr Kwon Hyok said.
They are there because of the 'Heredity Rule'.
He said: 'In North Korea, political prisoners are those who say or do something against the dead President Kim Il-sung, or his son Kim Jong-il.
'But it also includes a wide network of next of kin.
'It's designed to root out the seeds of those classed as disloyal to North Korea.'
In prison, he added, 'there is a watchdog system in place between members of five different families.
'So, if I were caught trying to escape, then my family and the four neighbouring families are shot to death out of collective responsibility'.
Torture, he said, is routine.
'Prisoners were like pigs or dogs. You could kill them without caring whether they lived or died...'
'For the first three years' he explained 'you enjoy torturing people but then it wears off and someone else takes over.
'But most of the time, you do it because you enjoy it.'
Camp 22, he said, is 'surrounded by a 3,300-volt electric fence and, inside the fence, is a 10m moat with spikes sticking out to impale anyone attempting escape'.
He described various forms of torture such as water torture, hanging torture and box-room torture.
He also described how he ordered public executions in the camp, and not just of those who tried to escape, but of their entire families and the families of their neighbours.
The BBC reporter noted that Mr Kwon Hyok's words lacked emotion.
He appeared to feel no remorse and seemed proud that he had earned promotion in the army on the strength of his cold-blooded ruthlessness.
Today, he is one of about 4,000 North Koreans who have left their country and now live in South Korea's capital, Seoul.
The South Korean taxpayer pays for his upkeep and, in return, he advises the government in Seoul on how to deal with the new enemy, the North.
Taken from this site
Whole families killed in North Korean gas chambers, says defector
HIS allegations were startling. He said he saw an entire North Korean family being gassed to death.
Mr Kwon Hyok, a defector from the North and now living in South Korea, made these allegations in a documentary aired by the BBC last night.
Mr Kwon Hyok, 45, said he was head of security at prison camp 22 in Haengyong, in the north-eastern part of the country.
It is one of a network of prisons in North Korea modelled on the Soviet Union's Gulag, where hundreds of thousands of prisoners are held.
CHEMICAL EXPERIMENTS
He told Ms Olenka Frenkiel, the reporter, how he witnessed chemical experiments being carried out on political prisoners. These took place in specially constructed chambers hidden within the camp.
He claimed that different gases are being tested there, including one called Vinyla, related to the North Korean artificial fibre, Vinalon.
In the documentary titled Access To Evil, he described the chambers - glass rooms within a room - sealed and with a ventilation shaft that pumps gas inside.
Above, there is a viewing gallery where North Korean scientists observe the death throes of their victims.
London's Daily Telegraph published details of the interview in which he said that the youngest victims are children, and the eldest are in their 60s.
They were selected by others and brought to the chamber, where they were stripped naked and given a medical check-up.
They had to be free of disease before entering the chamber.
Mr Kwon Hyok drew the layout for the reporter, explaining that individual victims stood around the edges of the chamber, while families were gathered in the centre, where they clung together.
'Even though they were dying,' he said, 'I saw the parents trying to save their children by giving them mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
'The most unforgettable scene I remember was when I watched an entire family being killed.
'They were put inside the chamber and I saw them all suffocate to death.
'The last person to die was the youngest son who was crying for his parents and eventually died.'
What were his feelings when he saw the children die?
The former prison chief said: 'I had no sympathy at all because I was taught to think that they were all enemies of our country and that all our country's problems were their fault.
'So I felt they deserved to die.'
In fact, most of the prisoners have not been charged with any crime, Mr Kwon Hyok said.
They are there because of the 'Heredity Rule'.
He said: 'In North Korea, political prisoners are those who say or do something against the dead President Kim Il-sung, or his son Kim Jong-il.
'But it also includes a wide network of next of kin.
'It's designed to root out the seeds of those classed as disloyal to North Korea.'
In prison, he added, 'there is a watchdog system in place between members of five different families.
'So, if I were caught trying to escape, then my family and the four neighbouring families are shot to death out of collective responsibility'.
Torture, he said, is routine.
'Prisoners were like pigs or dogs. You could kill them without caring whether they lived or died...'
'For the first three years' he explained 'you enjoy torturing people but then it wears off and someone else takes over.
'But most of the time, you do it because you enjoy it.'
Camp 22, he said, is 'surrounded by a 3,300-volt electric fence and, inside the fence, is a 10m moat with spikes sticking out to impale anyone attempting escape'.
He described various forms of torture such as water torture, hanging torture and box-room torture.
He also described how he ordered public executions in the camp, and not just of those who tried to escape, but of their entire families and the families of their neighbours.
The BBC reporter noted that Mr Kwon Hyok's words lacked emotion.
He appeared to feel no remorse and seemed proud that he had earned promotion in the army on the strength of his cold-blooded ruthlessness.
Today, he is one of about 4,000 North Koreans who have left their country and now live in South Korea's capital, Seoul.
The South Korean taxpayer pays for his upkeep and, in return, he advises the government in Seoul on how to deal with the new enemy, the North.
Taken from this site
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