Satellite Images show North Korean prison camp

Satellite pictures have confirmed the existence of detention camps where 200,000 North Koreans are detained. Pyongyang has long denied the existence of the camps. Men, women and children in the camp are used as slaves and forced to eat frogs, mice, snakes and bugs due to the lack of food. Previous photos of the camps failed to provide concrete evidence of the camps, but experts say that the new satellite images are irrefutable. The new images also show that the camps have increased in size. One of the photos showed images of the Yodok prison camp, 70 miles from Pyongyang. It is believed that 50,000 people are held in Yodok alone. A former detainee claims that half of the Yodok detainees die of starvation or malnutrition, while others die of deadly diseases that spread due to the poor living conditions. Others die of torture or are shot dead or stoned to death in public. He said that guards killed detainees for no reason, and that he had witnessed numerous executions. Kang, who was detained with his family when he was nine-years-old for political reasons, said that his family had no food and ate anything that they could get their hands on. After seeing pictures, Kang said that the camp looks larger and that there seems to be a new building for guards. Kang spent 10 years in Yodok camp before fleeing to China in 1992. Kang believes that he was the first former-detainee to tell the world about the camps. He has since written about his experience. After comparing the new pictures to pictures taken 10 years ago, Amnesty International confirmed that the camps have expanded. Sam Zarevi, an Amnesty International spokesman, said that the group is extremely concerned about the camps. He says that the outside world does not know exactly what happens in the camps, but that those lucky enough to escape paint a very worrying picture. Scott Edwards, the Director of Amnesty’s Human Rights Program said that the pictures disprove the claims of the North Korean government and prove that they are violating human rights. The news came as South Korea’s government announced that it would send a group of religious leaders and representatives on a peace mission to North Korea on Wednesday. The Ministry of Unification said that the Korean Religion and Peace Conference will be held in Pyongyang next Wednesday, where issues of peace and human rights will be discussed. The delegation may be granted an audience with the North Korean President, Kim Jong-il.