South Korea's 1980s prison camps

Witness History

BBC

History, Personal Journals, Society & Culture

4.4 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 17 July 2020

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

A so-called Social Purification project led to thousands of ordinary citizens being imprisoned under the military government in South Korea in the 1980s. Under the pretence of clearing the streets of vagrants and undesirables, people were sent to camps disguised as 'social welfare centres' where many of them suffered torture, forced labour, and physical and sexual abuse. Bugyeong Jung has been speaking to Seung-woo Choi who was taken to a centre in the port city of Busan when he was just 13 years old.

Photo: Seung-woo Choi talking to reporters outside South Korea's National Assembly. Credit BBC.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.
0:04.7	My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.
0:08.5	As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable experts and genuinely engaging voices.
0:18.0	What you may not know is that the BBC makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,
0:24.6	poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.
0:29.7	If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.
0:40.0	This is the Witness History Podcast from the BBC World Service with me
0:45.2	Buyangjiang. During the 1980s as South Korea prepared to host the
0:50.4	1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympics.
0:55.0	Its military government began a brutal cleanup plan.
0:59.0	So-called Social Welfare Centis were built.
1:02.0	Thousands of citizens were rounded up and imprisoned inside them and experienced torture, forced labor and sexual abuse.
1:12.0	I've been speaking to a survivor. first labor and sexual abuse.
1:13.0	I've been speaking to a survivor of one of those centers
1:16.6	where more than 500 people are said to have died. A beautiful spring day in 1982 in the South Korean port city of Bhusan.
1:31.0	Chiesingu was a typical 13 year old boy. He loved to watch cartoons and play with his younger brother.
1:38.0	He was on his way back home from school when his life changed forever.
1:45.0	A police officer asked me to stop and took me to a nearby police station.
1:50.0	Then he started searching my bag.
1:52.0	There was half a loaf of bread, a leftover of my lunch.
1:55.0	He asked me like, where did you steal it from?
1:58.0	Then he started torturing me,
	...

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