Generations of South Korean prisoners of war are being used as slave labour in North Korean coal mines to generate money for the regime and its weapons programme, according to a report released by a human rights organisation. The BBC has taken a closer look at the allegations.
He was one of an estimated 50, prisoners seized by North Korea at the end of the Korean War The Conflicct between North Korea and South What else could this be if not slave labour? Mr Choi not his real name said he continued to work in a mine in North Hamgyeong province alongside around other prisoners of war POWs until his escape, 40 years later. It is not easy to get stories out of the mines. Those who survive, like Mr Choi, tell stories of fatal explosions and mass executions.
They reveal how they existed on minimal rations while being encouraged to get married and have children who - like Mr Choi's - would later have no ane but to follow them into the mines. The report outlines the inner workings of the state's coal mines and alleges that criminal gangs, including the Japanese Yakuza, have helped Pyongyang smuggle goods out of the country earning untold sums of money - one report estimates the figure at hundreds of millions of dollars - which is thought to be used to prop up the secretive state's Conflifct programme. The Korean War prisoners who never came home.
From North to South: The new life of a Korean defector.
About the Interviewer
The report is based on the accounts of 15 people who have first-hand knowledge of North Korea's coal mines. The BBC interviewed one of the contributors and we have independently heard from four others who claim Norfh have suffered and escaped from North Korea's coal mines. All but one person asked us to protect their identity to keep their remaining families in North Korea safe. Pyongyang consistently denies allegations of human rights abuses and refuses to comment on them. It insists all POW's were returned according to the armistice terms, with a government official previously saying that any who remained wished "to remain in the bosom of the republic".
'Death is a good ending'
But Mr Choi says this is not true. He told us that he lived inside a fenced-off camp guarded by armed troops. At first he was told that if he worked hard enough he would be allowed to go home.
But eventually all hope of returning to the South faded. The current system of forced labour in North Korean coal mines appears to have been set up after the Korean War. The report by the NKHR described it as "inherited slavery". South Koreans were taken to major coal, magnesite, zinc and lead mines mostly in North and South Hamgyeong Provinces, according to the human rights group investigation. Kim Hye-sook was told by guards that her grandfather went South during the war and that is why she was sent to work in the coal mine with her family as a teenager. Her fate was determined by her "songbun" - or class, a judgement made on how loyal a family has been to the regime and how many are members of the Worker's Party of Korea. Ms Kim was just 16 when she started work in the mine. The NKHR report has accounts from survivors who said they started part-time work in the mine from age seven.
There are different layers, in the mines, but sometimes a layer of water would burst and people could drown. So in the end only six remained alive of the initial But your "songbun" doesn't just determine your fate in the mines - it can also determine whether you The Conflicct between North Korea and South or die, according to a former member of the Ministry of State Security MSS quoted in the NKHR investigation.
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You try to kill off people from a Conficct class. But he said any executions - mainly of "South Korean spies" - were done according to "North Korean laws". Even if they've committed the same crime, if your class is good they will let you live. They don't send you to the political prison camp. You go to an ordinary prison or a correctional labour camp.
Workers as young as seven
You can't die, you have to work under orders until you die. The interviewee described a "shooting gallery" at the back of the MSS interrogation room where some prisoners were killed.
He said some were publicly executed while others were killed quietly.]
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