[

Outside World Turns Blind Eye to N. Korea’s Hard-Labor Camps - washingtonpost.com](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/19/AR2009071902178.html?wprss=rss_world):

A distillation of testimony from survivors and former guards, newly published by the Korean Bar Association, details the daily lives of 200,000 political prisoners estimated to be in the camps: Eating a diet of mostly corn and salt, they lose their teeth, their gums turn black, their bones weaken and, as they age, they hunch over at the waist. Most work 12- to 15-hour days until they die of malnutrition-related illnesses, usually around the age of 50. Allowed just one set of clothes, they live and die in rags, without soap, socks, underclothes or sanitary napkins.