Background

An independent kingdom under Chinese suzerainty for most of the past millennium, Korea was occupied by Japan in 1905 following the Russo-Japanese War; five years later, Japan formally annexed the entire peninsula. Following World War II, Korea was split with the northern half coming under Soviet-sponsored Communist domination. After failing in the Korean War (1950-53) to conquer the US-backed republic in the southern portion by force, North Korea, under its founder President KIM Il Sung, adopted a policy of ostensible diplomatic and economic “self-reliance” as a check against excessive Soviet or Communist Chinese influence. It molded political, economic, and military policies around the core ideological objective of eventual unification of Korea under Pyongyang’s control. KIM’s son, the current ruler KIM Jong Il, was officially designated as KIM’s successor in 1980 and assumed a growing political and managerial role until his father’s death in 1994. He assumed full power without opposition. After decades of economic mismanagement and resource misallocation, the North since the mid-1990s has relied heavily on international aid to feed its population while continuing to expend resources to maintain an army of about 1 million. North Korea’s long-range missile development and research into nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons and massive conventional armed forces are of major concern to the international community. In December 2002, following revelations it was pursuing a nuclear weapons program based on enriched uranium in violation of a 1994 agreement with the United States to freeze and ultimately dismantle its existing plutonium-based program, North Korea expelled monitors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). In January 2003, it declared its withdrawal from the international Non-Proliferation Treaty. In mid-2003 Pyongyang announced it had completed the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel rods (to extract weapons-grade plutonium) and was developing a “nuclear deterrent.” From August 2003, North Korea has participated on and off in six-party talks with the China, Japan, Russia, South Korea, and the United States to resolve the stalemate over its nuclear programs.

A series of shocking personal testimonies is now shedding light on Camp 22 -
one of the country’s most horrific secrets

Antony Barnett
Sunday February 1, 2004
The Observer

In the remote north-eastern corner of North Korea, close to the border of
Russia and China, is Haengyong. Hidden away in the mountains, this remote town
is home to Camp 22 - North Korea’s largest concentration camp, where thousands
of men, women and children accused of political crimes are held.

Now, it is claimed, it is also where thousands die each year and where prison
guards stamp on the necks of babies born to prisoners to kill them.

Over the past year harrowing first-hand testimonies from North Korean defectors
have detailed execution and torture, and now chilling evidence has emerged that
the walls of Camp 22 hide an even more evil secret: gas chambers where horrific
chemical experiments are conducted on human beings.

Witnesses have described watching entire families being put in glass chambers
and gassed. They are left to an agonising death while scientists take notes.
The allegations offer the most shocking glimpse so far of Kim Jong-il’s North
Korean regime.

Kwon Hyuk, who has changed his name, was the former military attaché at the
North Korean Embassy in Beijing. He was also the chief of management at Camp
22. In the BBC’s This World documentary, to be broadcast tonight, Hyuk claims
he now wants the world to know what is happening.