Prison camps · North Hamgyong Province
Kyohwaso No. 12, Chongori
12호 전거리 교화소
Kyohwaso No. 12 at Chongori, Hoeryong, North Hamgyong Province, is the principal prison where North Koreans forcibly repatriated from China are sent. The UN Commission of Inquiry documented severe abuses, including routine torture, fatal beatings, forced abortions, and starvation. Activist Jihyun Park survived imprisonment here before escaping a second time.
Open on the intel map Puryong county How the camp system works
Satellite watch
Captured 8 Oct 2026Our own images of this 5.1 km square from the European Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellites: the newest clear picture, and the clearest one from each of the last 24 months. One pixel is 10 m, enough to see roads, fields, ponds and large buildings, not people.
Pick a month to compare with the latest image
We pick each image by measuring cloud inside this square from the satellite’s own scene classification. Months with no clear image are left out. We do not mark or interpret anything in the pictures. The ring marks the point on our map.
Contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2024-2026 · Copernicus Data Space · Sentinel-2 L2A COGs (AWS)
Why people end up here
Kyohwaso hold people sentenced through the regular courts. Sentences are set in years, but hunger, beatings and heavy labor kill many before release. Common charges:
- Illegal trading
- Smuggling across the border
- Watching foreign media
- Trying to escape to China
