Interrogation Using Torture And Starvation
DPRK have detention interrogation centres at village, city, county, provincial and national level. On top of the official ones there are thought to be a number of unofficial, so called “guest houses”. Political prisoners can find themselves in these detention interrogation centres for anything up to 6 months or more. Suspects are systematically degraded, intimidated and tortured.
These facilities are designed to humiliate and induce fear from the start. Many of the holding cells are underground and unlit:
Mr Kim explained that he had to crawl on his hands and knees into the cell he shared with 40 other prisoners because the entrance door was only about 80 cm high. The guards told him that “when you get to this prison you are not human, you are just like animals, and as soon as you get to this prison, you have to crawl just like animals”.
According to DPRK officials torture is only used in special cases, but in reality, the entire prison system is well aware of its regular use. It’s common practice to physically beat confessions and the names of co-conspirators from the arrested individuals…
A former SSD official described how a special torture chamber existed at the SSD interrogation detention facility which was equipped with a water tank, in which suspects could be immersed until the suspect would fear drowning. The room also had wall shackles to hang people upside down from. Various other torture instruments were also provided, including long needles to be driven underneath suspect’s fingernails and a pot with a water/hot chilli pepper concoction that would be poured into the victim’s nose. As a result of such severe torture, suspects would often admit to crimes they had not commited.
A woman in another province reported being fully submerged in a water tank and left for hours. She could only breathe by standing on tip toes so that her nose came above the water’s surface. She was unsurprisingly terrified.
☛ More: Inside North Korea: Unbelievable Excerpts From UN Report #2
