Oppression, Gulags, North Korea?

After finishing Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’ One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, I am starting my research on the gulags of the Soviet government. While the Soviet gulags were horrendous, and a complete and utter violation of many basic human rights, the gulags of North Korea are as bad, if not worse. Like the work camps of the Soviet regime the prison camps belonging to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea contain a wide variety of prisoners, with the majority of them being political prisoners. However, unlike the Soviet prisons, if a North Korean is sent to a prison camp their entire family may be deported there as well. The North Korean penal system will send a prisoners parents, siblings, nieces, nephews, even grandparents and grandchildren to the camps in order to stamp out all “dissidence”. Like the Soviet gulags the North Korean camps are located in very secluded regions of the country, with no form of communication to the general public. Crippling injuries are common as a result of the back breaking slave labor prisoners must endure, and the emotional trauma from living in a North Korean camp is tremendous.

There are two different North Korean gulag-style camps. There are internment camps, most similar to the soviet gulags, and reeducation camps, where prisoners are forced to memorize speeches from Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, as well as perform slave labor. The internment camps are where political prisoners are kept, whereas reeducation camps are for prisoners who performed actual crimes, such as stealing food or crossing the border illegally. In both camps prisoners are viciously beaten and tortured for extended periods of time, while other prisoners are allowed to starve to death.

To continue researching the gulags of the Soviet regime as well as those of the current North Korean government, I intend to watch at least 1 documentary on the North Korean camps as well as viewing photos and reading first person accounts of the atrocities of gulags. At the suggestion of Ms. Romano I may also read Adam Johnson’s The Orphan Master’s Son, a novel concerning the camps in North Korea as well as other government facilities such as state-run orphanages. I so far have not encountered any challenges in my research, apart from the fact that I must carefully select my materials and sources in order to make sure that they are factually correct. There is a lot of fictional material concerning gulags available, and at times it can be difficult to discern that from the primary and secondary sources available on the internet.