South Pyongan Kyo-hwa-so No. 15 Hamhung (c. 500 prisoners) in South Hamgyong Kyo-hwa-so No. 22 Oro (c. 1,000 prisoners) in South Hamgyong Kyo-hwa-so No. 77 Danchon (c. 6,000 prisoners) in South Hamgyong Kyo-hwa-so Hoeryong (c. 1,500 prisoners) in North Hamgyong Further camps are mentioned as being in Taehŭng and Sŭnghori (already closed). The South Korean human rights activist Lee Soon-ok has written a book (Eyes of the Tailless Animals: Prison Memoirs of a North Korean Woman) about her time in a camp and testified before the US Senate. In October 2014, North Korea admitted for the first time that it had labor camps. Choe Myong Nam, a North Korean foreign ministry spokesperson said "Both in law and practice, we do have reform through labor detention camps – no, detention centers – where people are improved through their mentality and look on their wrongdoings". International abductions In the decades after the Korean War, there were reports that North Korea had abducted many foreign nationals, mainly South Korean and Japanese. There are many testimonies that nine European citizens and several U.S. citizens have also been abducted to North Korea. For years, these were dismissed as conspiracy theories even by many of the regime's critics; however, in September 2002, Kim Jong-Il partially acknowledged to Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi the involvement of North Korean "special institutions" in the kidnapping of Japanese citizens during a period of six years from 1977 to 1983. Kim officially admitted to abducting 13 Japanese citizens out of 17 Japanese the Japanese government accused North Korea of abducting. He stated that those responsible had been punished. Five surviving victims were allowed to visit Japan and decided not to return to North Korea. For eight more Japanese abductees, officials claimed deaths caused by accidents or illnesses; Japan says this leaves two still unaccounted for, and says that what North Korea claimed were the ashes of Megumi Yokota were not hers. Regardless of the admission to Prime Minister Koizumi, the North Korean government continues to deny the kidnappings of other foreign nationals and refuses any cooperation to investigate further cases of suspected abductions. In 2017, a former Japanese abductee Hasuike publicly stated that "Japan's prime minister needs to visit North Korea again", urging Prime Minister Shinzō Abe to visit North Korea to discuss the continuing abduction issues between North Korea and Japan by taking the advantage of the Pyongyang Declaration. Officials