Personal: Diary Entry

Mitchel Bumb (502) Jordan Orains (505)

Personal: Diary Entry

 8 March 2012

Dear diary,

It was another day in the camps. I don’t know how many years I’ve been in the camp; I only know it has been a long time. Some of the sentries who guard us are poor children who were picked to watch the prisoners because it is not a very popular job. Some of them feel just like the prisoners because they have to follow us in any kind of weather condition with an AK68 and two clips of ammunition. There are about 2,000 people with me in the camps. I don’t know why I am here but I just know I’ve been here a long time. The camps can drive people crazy. They have a concrete wall around part of it and the rest is cylinders of barbed wire. At the center of the cylinders of barbed wire is an electrified high tension barbed wire and it is as effective as the wall. There are roughly 800 to 900 families of prison staff as well in this camp. I am in camp twelve and it is horrible. There are a couple things that I will never forget. One of those things was when I was asked to help with childbirths. I was told to place the babies on a table where I saw two dead babies and to throw away their umbilical cords. I was told to take the babies from the mothers and I sat them on the table where the doctor had a pair of scissors and hit them on the head. The babies died immediately. "After the forceful births, the women were moved to work on cutting grass without being treated for bleeding." (Maloney, 2003)  We have to eat gruel made from powdered corn stalks while the soldiers eat corn. The one most memorable thing for me was before the camps though. My grandsons went missing and I asked around to find out where they went. I was told they were last seen near the black market at a noodle restaurant. I told the police and they raided the noodle restaurant only to find human hands and feet in a pot of kimchi. She let them in to have some noodles near a stove and they fell asleep. When the children fell asleep she killed them with an axe.  The murderers were shot in public. I don’t know how long I can last in here. I am planning an escape with my granddaughter. I hope it works.

Maloney,C. (2003, June 8). North Koreans Selling Human Flesh on Black Market. The Weekly Post. Retrieved March 8, 2012, from http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/terrorism/north_koreans_eating_human_flesh.htm

Ha,L. (2009,June 25).What Does Camp 12 Look Like. Daily NK. Retrieved March 8, 2012, from http://www.dailynk.com