In prison, says Kwon Hyok, "there is a watchdog system in place between members of five different families. So if I were caught trying to escape, then my family and the four neighbouring families are shot to death out of collective responsibility."

Torture, he says, was routine. "Prisoners were like pigs or dogs. You could kill them without caring whether they lived or died.."

"For the first three years" he explained " you enjoy torturing people but then it wears off and someone else takes over. But most of the time you do it because you enjoy it."

But Kwon Hyok had something else he wanted to tell.


I had no sympathy at all...I felt they deserved to die
Kwon Hyok

He says he witnessed chemical experiments being carried out on political prisoners in specially constructed gas chambers.

"How did you feel when you saw the children die?", I asked.

His answer shocked me.

"I had no sympathy at all because I was taught to think that they were all enemies of our country and that all our country's problems were their fault. So I felt they deserved to die."

Verification

There have been many rumours of human experimentation on political prisoners in North Korea. But never has anyone offered documentary proof. Until now.

In Seoul I met Kim Sang-hun, a distinguished human rights activist.

He showed me documents given to him by someone else completely unrelated to Kwon Hyok. He told me the man had recently snatched them illicitly from Camp 22 before escaping.

They are headed Letter Of Transfer, marked Top Secret and dated February 2002 . They each bear the name of a male victim, his date and place of birth. The text reads: "The above person is transferred from Camp 22 for the purpose of human experimentation with liquid gas for chemical weapons."

I took one of the documents to a Korean expert in London who examined it and confirmed that there was nothing to suggest it was not genuine.

But I wanted to run a check of my own with Kwon Hyok. Without showing him the Letter of Transfer, I asked him very specifically, without prompting him in any way.

"How were the victims selected when they went for human experimentation? Was there some bureaucracy, some paperwork?"

"When we escorted them to the site we would receive a Letter of Transfer," he said.

Sadly, as long as these reports continue from defectors, and as long as the North Korean government continues to deny all allegations of human rights abuse, while refusing to allow access to its prisons, such allegations cannot be dismissed or ignored.

He said that he witnessed chemical experiments being carried out on political prisoners in specially constructed chambers hidden in the camp. Various different gases, he claimed are being tested there including one he called Vinyla - related to the North Korean artificial fibre Vinalon. He described the chambers - glass rooms within a room - sealed and with a ventilation shaft that pumps gas inside. Above, there is a viewing gallery where, North Korean scientists observe the death throes of their victims.

"The most unforgettable scene I remember was when I watched an entire family being killed. They were put inside the chamber and I saw them all suffocate to death. The last person to die was the youngest son who was crying for his parents and eventually died."

Kwon Hyok said that the youngest victims were children and the eldest were in their sixties. They were selected by others and brought to the chamber where they were stripped naked and given a medical. They had to be checked free of disease before entering.

He drew the layout for me explaining that individual victims stand around the edges of the chamber while families collect in the centre clinging together. "Even though they were dying," he said, "I saw the parents trying to save their children by giving them mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."

"How did you feel when you saw the children die?" I asked. "I had no sympathy at all because I was taught to think that they were all enemies of our country and that all our country's problems were their fault. So I felt they deserved to die."

I listened to his cold and logical testimony remembering the phrase "the banality of evil". His words lacked emotion. He appeared to feel no remorse. He seemed proud that he had earned promotion in the army on the strength of his cold-blooded ruthlessness. - The Telegraph