"It is well-known in this town that the Washington Times shies away from controversial Korea stories." - Top Korea expert in the nation's capital On May 2nd, a subcommittee of the House International Relations committee held a dramatic hearing on human rights in North Korea. The Washington Post mentioned it in passing several days later when it ran a story about one of the witnesses, Dr. Norbert Vollertsen. The paper ignored another witness, Lee Soon-ok, a North Korean prison camp survivor, who provided some of the most dramatic testimony. She described torture chambers and brutal treatment of political prisoners, including Christians. The other Washington paper, the Washington Times, ignored the hearing. Lee Soon-ok worked for the regime in the prisons and served time in one of them on a phony charge of embezzlement. She later fled to South Korea and wrote a book about her experiences. "A prisoner has no right to talk, laugh, sing or look in a mirror," she said. "Prisoners must kneel down on the ground and keep their heads down deeply. Whenever called by a guard, they can say nothing except to answer questions asked. Women prisoners' babies are killed on delivery. Prisoners have to work as slaves for 18 hours daily." She said thousands of prisoners died from hard work, poor treatment, and beatings. At one camp, dead bodies were often buried under the fruit trees in the prison orchard, helping to produce apples, pears, peaches, and plums that earned a reputation for their large size and sweet taste. "They are reserved for senior party and police officials," she said. In one prison, she was taken into a torture chamber that featured a big kettle on a small table and a low wooden table with straps. She was strapped to the table and a kettle spout was forced into her mouth. So much water was forced in that she was close to suffocation and had to breathe through her nose. Then, the water overflowed from her nose. She fainted from the pain and suffocation. "They say it is a day of great fortune if a prisoner finds a rat creeping up from the bottom of the toilet hole," she said. "The prisoners catch it with their bare hands and devour it raw, as rats are the only source of meat in the prison. They say the wonderful taste of a raw rat is unforgettable. If they are caught eating a rat, however, the punishment is extended. So they have to be very careful when catching and eating a rat." She encountered a woman who had been in prison for about 5 years and received reduced rations for punishment when she failed to meet a work quota. She got weaker with less food. She was so desperate for water that drank the dirty water from a bucket where floor mops had been washed several times. She got sick and died. Christians are singled out for special attention. In the spring of 1990, she witnessed five or six elderly Christians who were lined up and ordered to deny their Christianity and accept the ideology of the State, which holds that the masses can be endowed with life through loyalty to the dictator. The prisoners remained silent at the repeated command for conversion. They were killed by pouring molten iron on them one by one.              Printer-friendly version Click here to be added to our mailing list.