Chongori concentration camp (Hoeryŏng)

 prison, concentration camp, military prison

Chongori concentration camp (Hangeul: 전거리 제12호 교화소, also spelled Jeongeori or Jongori) is a reeducation camp in North Korea. The official name is Kyo-hwa-so (Reeducation camp) No. 12.
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The Chongori reeducation center in North Hamgyong Province that went through the greatest change. The center has been reorganized as a concentration camp exclusively for arrested defectors. It has reportedly turned into a living hell, where labor is much heavier than at ordinary reeducation centers and where torture and beatings are routine.

The main section is surrounded by a 8 m (26 ft) high wall, while the branch offices are surrounded with barbed wire and an electrified fence. In 2005 there used to be around 2000 prisoners, mostly non-political criminals, but often sentenced there for desperate offences such as stealing food. They are guarded by around 300 prison guards with machine guns. From 2006 on the number of prisoners increased significantly, as many defectors deported from China were arrested in Chongori camp. Theoretically, prisoners should be released after reeducation through labor and serving their sentence, but since the prison sentences are very long and the conditions are very harsh, many do not survive their prison sentences. A former prisoner estimates, that during his eight months of detention, around 800 prisoners died from hard labor and sub-subsistence level food rations.