Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) announced that a press conference will be held at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) in Central London on Monday 4th April, featuring the testimonies of two survivors of North Korean political prison camps and a conversation with Bill Rammell MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
The two North Koreans are both Christians. They were imprisoned at the Yodok Political Prison Camp and suffered appalling abuses.
The 49-year-old ex-prisoner, Kim Tae Jin, fled to China in 1986 from the inequality and lack of freedom in North Korea. He became a Christian in China. After 16 months, when he was repatriated by the Chinese authorities, a Bible was discovered in his belongings. Therefore, the North Korean authorities tortured him severely in a prison cell for eight months.
He even swallowed a nail so that he could be sent to the hospital for an operation in an attempt to leave the cell. Later, he was imprisoned without trial in Yodok Political Prison Camp. Again, he experienced inhumane treatment such as being beaten with burning wood and forced to carry out hard labour on minimal food intake. Even when he appeared too weak to carry out his tasks, he was beaten unconscious.
Despite all the physical suffering and spiritual trauma, he survived the imprisonment and arrived in South Korea in June 2001. Currently, he is Director of Missionary Works at NKGulag and Chairman of the Special Committee for North Korean Gulag Dismantlement. He is also studying at Chongshin University, a theological school in South Korea. NKGulag is a human rights agency representing survivors of political prison camps.
Another North Korean, Kim Young Soon, 67, was arrested by the North Korean security forces simply because of her association with her husband who was persecuted. Her parents and her four children were all detained. From 1970-78, she endured conditions of forced labour, regular physical and verbal abuse, ideological indoctrination and severe degradation. She describes the camp as "a living hell where prisoners were treated as less than animals".
Eventually, she was able to flee North Korea and arrived in South Korea in November 2003. She is now a member of the Operations Committee of NKGulag.
