North Korea

From Foreign Policy

Information about North Korea, one of the few remaining Stalinist regimes, is hard to come by. With no human rights organizations allowed into the country, a strictly controlled state-run media, and very little citizen access to the Internet or news from the outside world, North Korea is the most secretive society in the world.

Nonetheless, based on testimonies from the estimated 300,000 North Koreans who have been able to escape, as well as satellite evidence, it is known that the Pyongyang regime runs the world's most extensive system of gulags, or Kwan li so, incarcerating as many as 200,000 unknown political prisoners spread out across six large prison camps. Testimonies from defectors describe the treatment of these prisoners in terms that amount to crimes against humanity, including systematic torture, public executions, slave labor, and forced abortions. Moreover, the regime practices "guilt by association," incarcerating family members of political prisoners, including children, for up to three generations.

Makes me feel very grateful to live in an open society, despite its problems, God Bless America.