Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I don't know about the other camps, I just know about the camp I was in. Those are the numbers from number 18 camp, where my siblings are still held. We had about 17,000 to 18,000 people in that number 18 camp. We could see number 14 camp across the river but we had no idea how

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  After I was released I went around and I saw number 14 and number 20 under the security department and there was number 15 in Yodok and number 20 in Hoeryong. Then numbers 17, 18, 19, 21, and 22 concentration camps were in the area under the safety department. That's all I kn

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  On March 4 I left Yanji in China. We don't really know Chinese; there was one person who had only one leg, and we followed him to Tianjin. There were a lot of defectors, about six of them, who joined us at Tianjin, and we were taken to Shandong. There, four more defectors joined

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In China, lots of police are after you, and I couldn't speak a word of Chinese when I was there. When you see a police car passing by in China.... You see a lot of police going house to house looking for North Korean defectors. People are encouraged to report defectors to the pol

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In 2002 I was released and then I went to China and then I went back, as I told you. I was at the district office as well for a while and I tried to calculate the number at some point. At the end of August of 2002, about 20,000 were being managed in that area; if we exclude all t

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I am past 50 now. I've never heard about human rights in North Korea at all. No one in North Korea knows what human rights are. Once we arrived in South Korea, I went through their education process and integrated with the Korean society. Of course I tried to hide the fact that

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  The number 18 camp was led by the safety department, while the number 14 camp was with the security department. In the number 18 camp, the families stay together. They keep the families together. And there were some people who were high officials in the government. Sometimes they

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  In the number 18 camp, it's all a mining area. So anyone, no matter how high an education they've received in the past, just goes and works in the mines. Everyone goes and works in the mines. So everyone usually ends up with some sort of lung disease, and if this lung disease get

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  On August 13, 2005, I followed the lady and crossed over into China. We went through Musan and we bribed the guards there. The broker and the guards were collaborating. The guards told me that they would send me over to some ethnic Koreans in China. I'm sure they received some mo

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Good afternoon. My name is Kim Hye Sook. I'm wearing sunglasses right now, because in a prisoner camp back in North Korea I still have siblings who are imprisoned there. Because of that, I cannot reveal my full identity to the public, so I have my sunglasses on. I'd like to ask