Blood Coal Export
From North Korea
Pyramid Scheme of Earnings Maintaining Structures of Power
North Korean economic structure is an exploitative structure resembling a pyramid, similar to a financial pyramid fraud in which the top does not invest earnings but requires a constant flow of resources from below. The regime’s revenue system relies heavily on slavery, compulsory labor, and extortion of goods, and in many ways functions like mafia-type operations that use a shady network of foreign trading partners. Much of the revenue comes in the form of foreign currency, which the government uses for trade rather than investing in domestic infrastructure or services.
At the peak of the pyramid is the Leader and the secretive Third-Floor Secretariat, followed by the State Affairs Commission, the Executive of the Supreme Assembly, and the Party Politburo. The State Affairs Commission, chaired by the Leader, includes top officials from the Ministry of State Security, Ministry of Public Safety, the Korean People’s Army, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Through this structure, the state maintains a tight nexus of economic exploitation and human rights crimes, distributing planning orders for quotas of goods and mobilizing free forced labor throughout all levels of society.
Fig. 1:
Overlapping roles of office holders of North Korea as of 2019
North Korea’s mineral extract industry is intertwined with, and dependent on, persecution policies of enslavement, highlighting particularly the blood coal originating from political prison camps. This blood coal has sponsored ever-increasing expenditures in military development and supported the North Korean elites’ luxurious lifestyle since 1970s. Coal is only one example among other minerals like magnesite, limestone, and gold produced in detention facilities where thousands of people and even families perished.
According to materials deriving its data from the North Korean sources, total coal ore reserves in North Korea are estimated at 18.6 billion tons and the reserves were previously valued at 3,480,220 billion USD. It is estimated that North Korea earned 200 million USD in export of coal in 2017 alone, exporting the coal mostly to China, Russia, Myanmar and Syria.
Satellite Photo 1:
Anthracite mines with overlapping area of known political prison camps and other enslavement and forced labor detentions in Bongchang-ri, Bukchang (MPS Camp 18) Kaechon (MSS Camp 14, Choma Bong Camp, MPS Kyohwaso No.1, as well as Released Prisoners Area of Camp 18 in Tukchang. South Pyongan Province.
Satellite Photo 2:
Tukchang Labor District as Camp 18 Released Prisoners Area with the mines
Satellite Photo 3:
Expanding boundaries of Bukchang Concentration Camp from 2016
Satellite Photo 4:
Mines of Bongchang-ri, Bukchang Camp 18 still operating as of 2019.
Red line on the right side of the image marks guard posts perimeters separating the area from Tukchang Released Prisoners’ Area. On the left side, the guard posts separate from other rapidly developing mining ‘social’ areas in the recent couple of years.
It was also reported that the yearly planning order in Bukchang MPS (police) Camp 18, which at the peak of operation housed approximately 30,000 prisoners – men, women and children, was 8 million tons of anthracite.
One witness reported that on any average day, one team would fill 70 to 100 coal wagons (tancha). On a bad day, it was 50 carts; on the days when a lot of coal was exposed, or the orders were higher, the political prisoners would have to fill up to 180 wagons. Three shifts a day worked 8 hours each, so that the mines would operate 24 hours. In addition, there is only one day of rest a month, mostly for reparations and maintenance of tools and equipment rather than rest. The prisoners aim to fulfil the quota because food rations would otherwise be cut.
Political criminals are detained in camps for the purpose of providing free labor to produce goods and resources. The detention camps try to keep detainees alive so they can work for the government agency that operates the camp. To sustain the free labor, camp administration do not arbitrarily or unnecessarily kill detainees, and consistently imprison people for so-called political crimes.
“In the prison camps they don’t kill you indiscriminately. They see you as labor power.
Labor that you don’t need to pay for. Docile labor. If you keep killing them you can’t produce coal. And you can’t bring them in from just anywhere. They make political criminals little by little. ”
Quote 1: "Forced Labor" Pg 88
In political prison camp in Bukchang and in mining area for released prisoners in Tukchang, students had classes during half of the day and spent the other half of the day picking up coal fallen along the railway while being transported from the mine to the train station. One interviewee reported that each person in the class had to collect five buckets of coal, which would amount to about 20-25 kg of daily coal quota per child.
"I was required to build the school myself there [in Tukchang] with other children. When the noon
passed, we had to bring a bucket and go out. Do you remember the railroad for mine wagons
I showed you earlier? The mine wagons would drop coal behind as it drives forward. When we are announced to bring ‘gathered coal,’ we go outside with buckets. They require us to bring back four to five buckets each. The collected coal would be counted and the amount of coal we contributed to the production of the Tukchang Coal Mine was announced.
Quote 2: "Child labour and pregnant women" Pg 91
There were reports that detainees were denied basic human dignity and agency. The most difficult for prisoners and released prisoners was threat of punishment, harsh discrimination and lack of food, which caused many prisoners to refer to this population as not looking or behaving like human beings.
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