Hell froze over

We all complain too much. We think we have it hard. But our troubles pale when compared to life in Hell: North Korea. The last place on Earth is no place to be if you run afoul of the authorities. In a country that is a prison all by itself, the system of gulags that dot North Korea have no equal anywhere else in the world. It is hard for westerners to comprehend the level of cruelty and the harshness of life that exists in these camps.

Cannibalism, infanticide, torture, slavery, rape, forced abortion and experimentation on humans with chemical weapons is the order of the day. Earlier today, Japanese television showed a smuggled video of one North Korean gulag. The commentary in this linked article is riveting, if not numbing reading. And an interview with a former commander of a vast North Korean slave labor camp on the BBC Television Website provides insight into the level of cruelty that is the norm.

It is estimated that the system of political prisons and labor camps in North Korea holds more than 200,000 people, and that, given the harsh conditions in these camps, some 400,000 prisoners have perished in the past three decades. In keeping with North Korean founder Kim Il Sung's dictate that class enemies "must be eliminated through three generations, parents, children, grandchildren and other relatives? of prisoners are also sent to the gulag; and forced abortion and infanticide are standard practice, as prisoners are considered subhuman and are not permitted to have children.

North Korea, of course, denies the existence of such camps, but recently published satellite photos of vast gulags, each holding over 50,000 prisoners, along with interviews of escaped prison guards who described grisly tales of torture and executions show the horrible truth that exists in this frozen Hell.

An in-depth report in Adobe Acrobat .pdf format, The Hidden Gulag, by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea can be downloaded here.