Defector Accounts of Life in Camp 14

The International Herald Tribune’s Choe Sang-hun writes a chilling account of life in a North Korean prison camp from a NK defector:

Shin, now 24, was a political prisoner by birth. From the day he was born in 1982 in Camp No. 14 in Kaechon until he escaped in 2005, Shin had known no other life. Guards beat children, tortured grandparents and, in cases like Shin’s, executed family members. But Shin said it did not occur to him to hate the authorities. He assumed everyone lived this way.

He had never heard of Pyongyang, the capital city 90 kilometers, or 55 miles, to the south, or even of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader.

"I didn’t know about America, or China or the fact that the Korean Peninsula was divided and there was a place called South Korea," he said. "I thought it was natural that I was in the camp because of my ancestors’ crime, though I never even wondered what that crime was. I never thought it was unfair."

Make sure you read the entire article because life in Camp 14 is extremely chilling stuff and should make you feel sick to your stomach that such evil exists in this world.  Thanks to Choe Sang-hun for putting a face to such evil that many would prefer to pretend doesn’t exist. 

To further put a face on evil I have decided to an OFK like job and see if I can locate Camp No. 14 on Google Earth.  Here is where the city of Kaechon is located:

Kaechon is in fact located just south of North Korea’s nuclear facility in Yongbyon.  If you zoom in on Kaechon you can see just to the south of the city what appears to be a possible prison camp:

As you can see the northern portion of the camp does not have a detailed view yet from Google Earth, but the southern portion does.  Here is a close up look at the southern portion of the camp:

There is a number of long barracks buildings along with some possible farming fields and possible mining activity:

The area with detailed imagery does appear to be totally surrounded with fencing of some kind.  Could it be Camp No. 14?  I can’t say for sure, but looking around the area I cannot find any other large fenced in compounds in the area besides this North Korean Air Force Base to the north of Kaechon:

Maybe some of you readers can find other possibilities for Camp No. 14, but even looking at the civilian areas around Kaechon they do not look much better than the possible prison camp.  Overall, what a bleak and horrible place. 

HT: Marmot