camps for political prisoners (Kwan-li-so in Korean) and reeducation prison camps (Kyo-hwa-so in Korean). On October 19, 2020, Human Rights Watch released an 88-page report "'Worth Less Than an Animal': Abuses and Due Process Violations in Pretrial Detention in North Korea", detailing the torture, abuse and unhygienic conditions of detainees in North Korea pretrial detention centers. Revealing the opaque criminal justice system, the report highlighted the "arbitrary, violent, cruel and degrading" investigation system of North Korea. Internment camps for political prisoners The internment camps for people accused of political offenses or denounced as politically unreliable are run by the state security department. Political prisoners were historically subjected to the family responsibility principle, which meant that the immediate family members of a convicted political criminal were also regarded as political criminals and interned. However, since 1994 there has been a near-abandonment of this family responsibility principle. The internment camps are located in central and northeastern North Korea. They comprise many prison labor colonies in secluded mountain valleys, completely isolated from the outside world. The total number of prisoners is estimated to be 80,000 to 120,000. The Yodok and Bukchang camps are separated into two sections: one for political prisoners in lifelong detention, the other similar to re-education camps where prisoners are serving long-term sentences with the vague hope that they will eventually be released. The prisoners are forced to perform hard and dangerous slave labor with primitive means in mining and agriculture. The food rations are very small, so the prisoners are constantly on the brink of starvation. In combination with the hard work, this leads to huge numbers of prisoners dying. An estimated 40% of prisoners die from malnutrition. Moreover, many prisoners are crippled from work accidents, frostbite or torture. There is a rigid punishment system in the camp. Prisoners who work too slowly or do not obey an order are beaten or tortured. In cases of stealing food or attempting to escape, the prisoners are publicly executed. Initially, there were around twelve political prison camps, but some were merged or closed (e.g. Onsong prison camp, Kwan-li-so No. 12 was closed down following an unsuccessful riot in 1987 where around 5,000 prisoners were killed). Today there are six political prison camps in North Korea (see below). Most of the camps are documented in testimonies of former prisoners, and coordinates and satellite images of all are available. The South Korean journalist