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Human Rights

A virgin raped in a prison camp

Zane Han
A story of Choi depicts a cruel reality which a woman can face in North Korean labor camp (Image: iStock.com/dzika_mrowka)

We won’t say her full name, for reasons which will become obvious, but Choi was not really a defector. Nor was she caught by the Chinese police. She falls into the category of self-surrendered escapee.

Choi was one of the 200 North Koreans detained at a facility in Jilin province and sent back across the border into North Korea on April 26 this year. They followed an even larger group of 600 people caught and repatriated against their will after the international spotlight went off China at the end of the Hangzhou Asian Games the previous October. 

But Choi was different from the others who had all been rounded up.

We heard her story third-hand, from someone in North Korea who in turn heard it from somebody released just a month ago from a labor camp in Onsong County, North Hamgyong Province.

Choi’s story began when she crossed the border illegally into China in 2019. She was just 18 and went to earn money doing odd jobs. 

For five years, she avoided the eyes of the public security bureau. Then she was faced with a choice: marry a man 20 years her senior and stay in China. Or be reported. 

She took a third option and chose voluntary repatriation. 

Once back in North Korea, the security people took her voluntary surrender and the fact that her family was all in North Korea into account, and handed her over to the Onsong County labor camp.

North Korea’s various “Kkangpan,” the slang term for prisons, include camps for political offenders, provincial labor camps, and then smaller labor camps in each of the 200 counties. These county prisons are the least harsh. Being sent there is considered the lightest of possible punishments.

But Choi was not to be so lucky. When she arrived at the camp, she was interrogated by the person in charge. His name was Kim. He was 46. Dispatched by the local people’s committee, Kim wielded absolute power. Inmates had to obey his every word. He was tasked with evaluating them and had the authority to extend or shorten their terms.

Kim learned during Choi’s interrogation that she was a virgin.

The authority structure in the county labor camp was such that Kim, as the head, was supported by a leader who was responsible for overseeing the prisoners and who was helped by team leaders. Both this leader and the team leaders were prisoners, whose terms could also be lengthened or reduced according to Kim’s evaluation.

Choi was serving a one-year sentence of reform through labor. Meals consisted of thin salty soup with a few boiled corn kernels. The day began at 5 a.m., followed by breakfast from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m., and then work until 7 p.m. The early morning work mainly involved carrying stones, and after breakfast, inmates were mobilized for the rest of the day to do farm labor.

In this environment, inmates tried to curry favor with the camp head to become team leaders or, if they were lucky, to become the overall prisoner leader.

With this in mind, Kim made an unusual request to Choi’s team leader, a 54-year-old woman named Jeon. She was serving a two-year sentence for smuggling. Could Jeon verify Choi’s virginity? 

Jeon coaxed and threatened Choi. If she could prove she had had no marital relations with any Chinese man, she could have her term reduced, Jeon told her. Choi acquiesced and let Jeon conduct an intimate examination. Jeon reported her findings to Kim.

That night, Kim summoned Choi. He needed to personally confirm she had had no relationships with Chinese men while in China, he said. Then he raped her.

Choi now regretted her decision to return to North Korea to avoid an unwanted marriage. With a year still to go, she was scared and ashamed, unable to tell anyone in the county labor camp about the incident. As of this writing, she is still there.

Zane Han
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