Humanitarian Crisis: North Korea Concentration Camps

By Cathy H - 3:51 AM

After reading David Hawke's "Hidden Gulag" the feelings I felt were beyond words and at some points I actually had to put it down due to the contents being so disturbing. Below are some of the torture that goes on in these camps. It saddens me only a small % of the world recognizes this as a severe situation which should never be allowed to exist.

We live in the 21st century. In North America, we enjoy walking in the sun, eating with our families and going to school with everything laid out for us. As I'm writing this the 200,000 prisoners held at those camps are living in fear of starvation,rape,torture and possibility of being executed for trying to escape. Winter is so cold people's fingers fall off and for taking a few drops of corn people are beaten to death. As we are shopping and driving are cars in freedom, there are people being stoned to death in that environment. Babies are stuffed in a plastic box while still alive and buried underground to be killed because there's not even enough food for prisoners there. According to Freud's psycho-dynamic theory, people usually block off unpleasant thoughts and memories. This is what us privileged first world citizens do, we hear about atrocities like this but can't ever imagine those horrific acts fully so our mind moves on and turns a blind eye. It troubles me how most of us can go on living so comfortably knowing some others are facing hell-like conditions like a daily basis.

But than again, what's there to do if the NK government denies these camp's existence despite google map clearly pointing out these camps are expanding? Most world issues such as Syrian bombings at least have coverage and reporters. But who has been to a NK prison camp before? It's seriously sickening everytime I think about the people being confined there...on top of being a North Korean whom all countries shun and it's own dictator already being so repressive..generations of them need to repay for "disloyalty to government " from decades ago.

Let's not even think about the politics, the arguments back and forth about what to do with this & how to overcome the NK government. It really comes down to how people can treat each other like this. Like Buddha said, this degree of separateness people have is unconscious thinking that leads to war and mass destruction. The ego of every country passed down from generations compete with each other ..for what?

What makes it alright to stone prisoners to death and beat them to death for picking up food scraps from the ground? To chop off their fingers and hang them to be grilled in a fire pit? To tell them to betray their family and survive like dogs just to have a chance at nothing? I already realized, humans are still savages despite all our intellectual and technological progression. When we freak out over people getting beheaded in middle eastern countries and how Jews in concentration camps, we are all shocked. But why? We hurt each other on a daily basis, those barbaric North Korean guards that are taught to treat those prisoners like dogs. I'm not even surprised at what humans are capable of.

Admist all this nuclear war talk, many people still don't know about North Korea prison camps and daily public executions. No one deserves to live in hell on Earth. The most disturbing is how carefree people are continuing with their lives without knowledge of this. I'm never going to live in peace knowing people are suffering to that extent there. God have mercy on this Earth because we need a new awakening..humanity is much too corrupt to comprehend. Everyone who reads this, please keep in your hearts all the starving North Korean living in fear & running for their lives, as well as the prisoners in near death conditions. Or make that all the people suffering in worn torn countries with no democracy and social order.

Just because we don't experience it doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Pray for them ...and be thankful even if we don't have everything, at least we can wake up everyday with freedom, food in the fridge, and not fearing for our welfare every second of the day. I think the first step in knowledge of the situation.. I hope compassion will be shown to everyone someday...

Further information: