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Located near Hoeryong, Penal-Labour Camp 22 is a maximum-security facility. Some sources indicate a major change or even closure to the North Hamgyong province camp in 2012. The camp reportedly has some 1,000 guards, 500 prison agents and a 3,300-volt electric fence.
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Camp 22 reportedly saw almost 30,000 people die of starvation during a short time span in 2012. Approximately 3,000 prisoners were apparently moved to another camp. Reports suggest frequent and brutal episodes of water, hanging and kneeling torture. There is also a Hoeryong Re-education Camp nearby.
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Known as Penal-Labour Colony No. 16, Hwasong is located on the Hwasong River in North Hamgyong Province. At 550 sq km, the camp is the country's largest and reportedly holds prisoners who have no chance of being released. None of the 10,000 detainees - many of whom are political rivals of the regime - have ever escaped from the camp.
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With an estimated 45,000 detainees, Yodok is also used to isolate prisoners from society and punish them for being hostile to the regime. Just over 100km northeast of the capital, the camp is surrounded by mountains in South Hamgyong province. Penal-Labour Colony No. 15's total control zone is estimated to hold 6,000 Christians, and the multiple re-education units hold those convicted for listening to South Korean broadcasts, leaving North Korea and other less serious political crimes.
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The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea says the Bukchang Labour Camp, located on the Taedong River in South Pyongan Province, holds some 50,000 political prisoners for life. The 73 sq km camp is surrounded by a 4m-high fence and has five coal mines and a cement factory. The official name is Penal-Labour Colony No. 18.
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Re-education Camp No. 1, located in South Pyongan Province on the outskirts of Kaechon city 20km northwest of Penal-Labour Colony No. 14, is a large prison compound. Food rations are reportedly 100g of broken corn three times a day and a salt soup. There are 78 punishment cells, public executions and forced abortions by injection.
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Penal-Labour Colony No. 14, established in 1959, is for "unredeemable" convicts. Many prisoners at the camp were reportedly born under North Korea's "three generations of punishment" policy of keeping a whole family behind bars. Work hours are extremely long, and children rarely see their parents.
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In the hills close to the Chinese border in North Pyongan Province, Tongchang-ri (also known as the Sohae Satellite Launching Station) is the site of a failed April 13, 2012, launch, as well as a successful December 12 launch. The latter brought a Kwangmyongsong-3 Unit 2 into orbit, which the US, Japan and South Korea considered a ballistic missile test.
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Yongbyon Nuclear Scientific Research Center is North Korea's primary nuclear facility and is home to the country's first nuclear reactors. The site produced the fissile material used for nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009, and has been used to develop light-water reactor technology since then. North Korea announced in February 2012 that it would halt uranium enrichment at Yongbyon.
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Aerial view of the northern part of North Korea's capital shows Kim Il-sung University, May Day Stadium, Pyongyang Zoo, National Martyrs Cemetery, Kumsusan Memorial Palace and several Pyongyang Metro stations.
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The view of southern Pyongyang shows working class housing projects on the east bank of the Taedong River around the Juche Tower. On the west bank is the city's central and most affluent areas with the most vehicle traffic and highest concentration of restaurants, foreigners, hotels and tha landmark Kim Il-sung Square.
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With a population of 300,000, the city of Kaesong is just across the border from South Korea and is the hub of the country's light industry. The Kaesong Industrial Park, located just north of the demilitarised zone, is barely an hour's drive from Seoul. The countries have operated the area as a joint economic zone where largely South Korean companies employ North Korean workers.
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Located on the border with China, Baekdu Mountain (Baekdusan in Korean) is the mythological birthplace of Kim Jong-il, the enigmatic former North Korean leader who ruled from 1994 until he died in December 2011.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong-un makes an opening address at the Fourth Meeting of Secretaries of Cells of the Workers' Party of Korea, in Pyongyang. In the background next to the national icon are Kim Il-sung, the nation's "eternal president", and his son, Kim Jong-il.