The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) and DigitalGlobe have followed up their joint October publication of a report on Camp No.22 in North Korea with a recent update of images and analysis of the camp in a new report entitled, ‘North Korea’s Camp No. 22 - update.’ The updated report was published on December 11th.
DigitalGlobe’s Analysis Center focused on recent activity in and around the Camp for this updated report. They concentrated their study of the Camp on the outer perimeter fence, guard towers, and guard positions to determine whether the Camp borders and activities had been changed. By analyzing this, they hoped to find out if the prisoner workforce had been replaced by a civilian workforce. Similarly, they studied images of two coal mines to see if the workers had been moved to the Camp to replace the prisoner workforce by working in the coal mines there. Finally, the Analysis Center sought to find out whether Camp No. 16’s population had increased which would support claims that prisoners from Camp No. 22 were transferred there. The analysis of these studies is broken down in to segments in the report.
The perimeter fence and guard posts that could be analyzed from updated images taken from between May 2011 and November 2012 suggests that large sections of both the fence and posts have been razed. The perimeter fence used to be visible for the full 75 kilometers of the Camp’s perimeter. The updated images of the visible areas show that the perimeter’s fence has been scaled back to about 47 kilometers. Although some of the Camp’s guard posts were unable to be compared because of the conditions on the days that the images were taken, there is evidence of the razing and abandonment of some guard posts. However, there is some evidence of activity around some of the guard posts.
The two coal mines in the area local to Camp No. 22 that were analyzed for activity for this updated report seemingly show no more or less activity than they did in May 2011. It was evident from previous analysis that the coal mines were hardly used in recent times.
The overall assessment of the activities of Camp No. 22 suggests that while there is some evidence for some of the Camp being razed, there is no proof for the underlying reasons for this. Moreover, there is no proof that the Camp has been fully dispersed. The examination of the coal mines does not prove that workers have been relocated, but it seems likely that these coal mines have been inactive for a considerable period of time. The last objective of the updated report - studying possible population growth at Camp No. 16 - will be examined in a later report.
