U.S. is to build database for N. Korean political prisoner camps

The U.S. project to build a database for political prisoner camps in North Korea in cooperation with North Korea human rights organizations in South Korea has been indicated in the federal appropriation bill for the fiscal year of 2014 (Oct. 1, 2013 - Sept. 30, 2014). This is the first time for the United States to stipulate a project concerning North Korean political prisoner camps in a single bill since it declared the North Korean Human Rights Act in 2004.

The appropriation bill signed by U.S. President Barack Obama last Friday orders to use part of the democracy fund executed by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Affairs (DRL) at the State Department for the implementation of the database for North Koran prisoner camps.

Yun Yeo-sang, the head of the archive of North Korean human rights records at the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights in South Korea, said in a phone interview with Dong-A Ilbo on Tuesday, “Since starting the U.S. State Department’s project in September last year, we have been working to upload all types of data including the scale and prisoners of the five North Korean political prisoner camps to the Google Earth in a three-dimensional format, which can be accessed by the public.”