The number of inmates in North Korea’s political prison camps has increased slightly as authorities apply the “Reactionary Thought and Culture Rejection Law” and other measures more strictly to block the influx of foreign ideological content, including South Korean videos.
A North Korean source familiar with detention facilities told Daily NK recently that “the Ministry of State Security reported approximately 192,000 political prisoners as of the first half of this year during a plenary meeting in late June,” adding that “this represents inmates held across six prison camps.”
According to the source, prisoner numbers by camp as of the first half of 2025 were: Camp 14 (Kaechon) approximately 39,700, Camp 15 (Yodok) approximately 33,600, Camp 16 (Hwaseong) approximately 21,400, Camp 17 (Kaechon) approximately 39,200, Camp 18 (Bukchang) approximately 24,200, and Camp 25 (Suseong) approximately 31,900.
Compared to the same period last year, total prison camp inmates increased by approximately 2,900 people (1.5%). By individual camps, inmate numbers at camps 14, 16, and 18 increased by approximately 400 (1%), 3,100 (12.9%), and 400 (1.7%) respectively from last year.
Crackdowns target cultural content and border smuggling
The source explained that “Camp 16 concentrated on housing those who attempted ‘regime subversion’ through espionage activities linked to border smuggling or leaking military secrets to outsiders, while Camp 18’s increase mainly resulted from mass arrests of violators of the ‘Reactionary Thought and Culture Rejection Law.’”
Regarding the increase at Camp 14, the source said “strengthened anti-socialist crackdowns led to the arrest of many young people for collectively distributing foreign videos, with punishment extending not just to the individuals but to entire families being transferred together.”
North Korea has strengthened ideological control across society through what are known as the “three evil laws”—the 2020 Reactionary Thought and Culture Rejection Law, 2021 Youth Education Guarantee Law, and 2023 Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Law—creating legal and institutional mechanisms to block foreign cultural influx. The intensity of crackdowns and punishments for Korean cultural content appears to have increased further since late 2023, when North Korea defined inter-Korean relations as “hostile two-state relations” at a plenary meeting.
Additionally, amendments to the Criminal Procedure Law through a Supreme People’s Assembly Standing Committee decree in February reportedly significantly expanded the scope and intensity of actual punishments.
“The Criminal Procedure Law was revised and supplemented through a Feb. 18 Supreme People’s Assembly Standing Committee decree, making the law stricter and increasing the number of subjects requiring treatment as political prisoners,” the source said. “Since designating South Korea as a ‘hostile state,’ all activities involving the influx or distribution of Korean culture are being severely punished as political crimes.”
However, the specific content of the Criminal Procedure Law amendments remains unknown.
Prison camps undergo reorganization rather than closure
Meanwhile, no existing prison camps have been closed.
“Rather than new installations, prison camps undergo boundary adjustments, consolidation or separation, checkpoint and guard post repositioning, and functional conversions about once every 1-2 years,” the source said. “They frequently reorganize by expanding or reducing areas based on security environment, road and railway conditions, adjacent military facilities, and food and fuel supply conditions.”
The source explained that “while outsiders sometimes speak of ‘closures’ of specific prison camps, in reality it’s typical to change organizational structure through prisoner transfers, dismantling of some areas, and separation of new sections with purpose changes or conversions—Camp 18 is a representative example.”
Related to this, Daily NK reported last January, citing North Korean sources, that Camp 18’s scale had expanded compared to before Kim Jong Un’s rise to power (2012) and is currently operated and managed by the Ministry of Social Security. The report also included sources saying that Camp 17, believed to have been closed, was revived in November 2014.
