Prison Camp-related Information

The Chinese authorities were already aware of the existence of North Korean prison camps!
A confidential report entitled Yanbian Prefecture, the Situation around the Chinese-Korean Border (Chinese) issued in June 2000 by the Ministry of State Security, an intelligence agency directly under the State Council (the government cabinet) of China, has revealed that more than a dozen political prison camps called the "farms" existed across North Korea, in which approximately 300,000 political prisoners and their family members were confined. (The Tokyo Shimbun, May 11, 2008 Morning)

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Testimony

[Testimony on prison camps and Japanese and Koreans from Japan] delivered to No Fence
Ms. Yumiko Chiba moved to North Korea with her parents in the North Korean repatriation program when she was little. She lived there for 37 years and defected from the country. No Fence has received a letter from her who managed to return to Japan in 2005. In the letter, she testifies about the shocking fact that Japanese and North Koreans in Japan who moved to North Korea in the repatriation program were confined in the prison camps.
< Ms. Chiba traveled from Osaka to attend the No Fence opening ceremony on April 13 and joined us as a member on the same day. Two days later, her letter was delivered to the No Fence office. >

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Action Reports

April 13, 2008, NO FENCE Inauguration was held at Seiryo Kaikan, Tokyo.
An event to commemorate the establishment of NO FENCE, Japan's first civic action group focusing on the issue of North Korean prison camps, was held at Seiryo Kaikan in Tokyo.
In this event, testimonial speeches were presented by eight individuals who had experienced the life in the North Korean prison camps.

Video Footage of Lectures

April 13, 2008
NO FENCE Inauguration at Seiryo Kaikan, Tokyo
An address given by the No Fence administrators and testimonies and lectures presented by eight people who had been in the prison camps, including some members of Democracy Network against North Korea Gulag

Memoirs of Former Prisoners

On March 29, 2008, a shocking memoir was published.
"Born in a Prison, I Don't Know What Love Is" (Japanese)
Born a child of prisoners and lived as a slave for 23 years.
Such tragedies do exist in this world.

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