Forget The Denis Rodman Meltdown, This is the North Korea Video You Need to See

Dennis Rodman is once again soaking up a great deal of attention during his trip to North Korea. That is a shame because his idiocy and antics mean that other important issues in north korea are not getting the airtime they deserve.

Take, for instance, this  video of a young man who was born in a North Korean prison camp 30 years ago and managed to escape at the age of 25. The story he tells is absolutely chilling.

That video is from Amnesty, which says: 

Unverified reports received by Amnesty International claim that the North Korean government has purged possibly hundreds of officials deemed to be a threat to Kim Jong-un’s succession, by having them executed or sent to political prison camps..

In 2011, as North Korea prepared for its leadership succession, prison camps appeared to be growing in size according tosatellite imagery obtained by Amnesty International. 

In March, analysis of new satellite images by Amnesty International showed that  North Korean government is blurring the lines between a political prison camp (kwanliso 14) and the surrounding population, raising fears of widescale increases in restrictions and controls of people living near prison camps.

In October 2012, there were reports that one political prison camp (kwanliso 22 in Hoeryong, North Hamkyung Province) was reportedly closed after Kim Jong-Un came to power, but what has happened to its 20-50,000 inmates is a mystery.

Other reports put the number of people languishing in prison camps at 200,000 but the real figure is impossible for outsiders to know. As Navi Pillay, the UN’s top human rights official says, North Korea is the country with the worst human rights record that we know least about.