According to Axios North Korea is the least free country in the world of
course North Korea is run by a brutal dictator Kim jong-un
but one of the main reasons as to why it has such little freedom is because of
their prison camps North Korea has a situation where if you commit a crime
your entire family goes to prison these are known as re-education camps around
2,000 people are sent to these camps every single year and 90% of the time
the prisoners are in there for their entire lives
but with all these prisoners who guards them well they're known as the North
Korean security forces these are the thousands of guards who guard the
prisoners at the re-education camps and they have some really scary and strict
rules they have to follow we know these rules from Lim hi Jin who
is an escaped former North Korean prison camp guard I'm Charlie and today we're
going to look at crazy rules North Korean prison guards have to follow but
before we get knocked up subscribe and press at the notification bail to no
escape the first rule of being a North Korean prison guard is do not let anyone
escape as footage has shown it's hard enough to escape North Korea which is a
crime in itself but the only thing worse than that is trying to escape
from a North Korean prison camp sometimes the prisoners will try and
break out of the prison camp there are fields all around the camp and they're
pretty much in the middle of nowhere but there have been various successful
escapes the escapees usually flee to South Korea or China but as a North
Korean prison guard if you let a prisoner escape you are in big trouble
in fact it's a crime in itself as you may have aided the prisoner escaping
even if you didn't and they simply gone away you may still be blamed and go to
prison according to former North Korean prison guards this could land you in a
region camp yourself and then the shoe will be on the other foot and the prison
guard will become the prisoner that's why if someone tries to escape they're
likely to just be shot by the North Korean prison guards they're taught to
do this because otherwise it's going to be them and behind bars payment
you may wonder what motivates someone to be so evil to become a North Korean
prison guard there are various reasons why people do this for example
psychological manipulation but another reason is money North Korea is one of
the poorest nations in the world 60 percent of the population of North Korea
live below the poverty line North Korea used to get a lot of money from China
and also the Soviet Union but after the Soviet Union collapsed this money dried
up the government also used to give people food they do this anymore because
if they spend too much money on their nuclear weapons programs
this means that being a prison guard is a pretty good gig the salary ranges from
one thousand four hundred thirty-three dollars to two thousand one hundred and
forty nine dollars a year that is higher than the average wage in North Korea and
North Korean prison guards also get extra money from families of prisoners
sometimes they're corrupt and will accept money in exchange for letting
people out of prison and sometimes things are smuggled into the prisons for
example cellphones from China sympathy manipulation another reason why North
Korean prison guards are so brutal is because they're manipulated themselves
Lim hye-jin a former prison guard says his government lied to him and
manipulated him he said we were manipulated to not feel any sympathy for
the prisoners we were told they'd committed terrible
crimes but now I know there were normal people I feel very guilty
he also said he feels betrayed by the leaders who lied to him we were told not
to see these people as humans now I feel traumatized so the people who trained
the North Korean cards pretty much tell them to not see the prisoners as humans
they also don't tell them the crimes of the people behind bars they tell them
that the prisoners have done the worst crimes imaginable when in reality it's
not true the prisoners in these camps are mostly people who criticize the
government there are also people who are deemed politically unreliable for
example South Korean prisoners of war also Christians and returnees from Japan
and even a few former senior party members of the North Korean government
so before the guards go to work at the re-education camps there reeducate 'add
themselves smuggle in one strict rule that North Korean prison guards must
follow but sometimes is no smuggling North Korea is pretty
much cut off from the entire world they trade with almost no countries because
there's embargoes and sanctions all over the place also North Korean mobile
phones are blocked from making or receiving international calls but when
you're a higher ranking person thanne average for example a prison guard you
can get around these laws sometimes they can make trips into China and smuggling
mobile phones and for that they charge a fee which gains the prison guards even
more money this is illegal and if they were caught doing it they would be sent
to a prison camp themselves but because money is so tight in North Korea some
take the risk anyway also some prisoners in the camps have wealthy or powerful
family and friends for example purged members of the North Korean government
so sometimes things are smuggled in for those prisoners by the prison guards the
prisoners families will pay the guards and in exchange they'll smuggle in
things like phones and anything else this is a good but risky way that North
Korean prison guards supplement their income even in North Korea you have to
have a side hustle life taking I've already covered that before prison
guards go to work they're taught to not see the prisoners as human beings one
former prison guard named Ann Montrell describes how this works
he said camp guards are taught the prisoners are factionists and class
enemies so that's why they have to be destroyed like weeds down to their roots
based on this the guards may take a prisoner's life at any time if they
don't obey their orders if a prisoner breaks a rule then a security officer
can decide whether or not to take that prisoners life and even said he'd taken
the lives of 31 people himself these 31 people were from five families and it
was all because one member of one family tried to escape so basically if any rule
is broken then the prison guards can't take the prisoners life and their entire
family's life to 24/7 shifts in prison camps people live there 24/7 and in
North Korea's largest camp who are a young prison camp there are 50,000
prisoners this means that there has to be lots of guards on hand at all times
the guards pretty much live like prisoners they have much nicer bedrooms
and they also get more food the prisoners have to do hard labor between
the hours of 5:00 a.m. to p.m. this will either be in agriculture
mining or inside factories and during a 24-hour day there are three shifts of
prison guards this means the prison guards work
incredibly long hours and it's not like these guards can simply go home these
prison camps are located in the middle of nowhere this is so that if anyone
tries to escape they'll likely pass away before getting back to a town or sitting
so that's why the prison guards simply have to live in their own quarters and
can't go home they only get a few weeks of holiday every single year during that
time they can return home to their families but sometimes they'll simply
have a forced relationship with women in the prison camps collective punishment
in most countries if you do a crime then you go to prison but in North Korea
that's not how things fly north korea has what's known as a guilt by
association principle this means that if you commit a crime your entire family
will be going to prison with you this includes your wife children and elderly
relatives and any children born inside the camp - there's also collective
punishments for example the former North Korean guard who admitted to taking the
lives of 31 people these were people from five different families all because
one person in one family tried escape it you may wonder why he took 31 lives for
the act of one person and the reason why is because it scares every other
prisoner in the camp no one wants to break any rules because their entire
family will be punished as well as other families who there may be friendly with
this is a really nasty and brutal way of keeping everyone in line in the prison
camp based on satellite photos there are today six political prison camps in
North Korea and according to the Washington Post there could be as many
as 130,000 North Koreans in these four camps let's hope these are soon close
down but until they're not we will keep reporting on this but now it's time to
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