The western boundary of the camp runs parallel to, and at a distance of 5–8 km (3.1–5.0 mi) from, the Tumen River, which forms the border with China.
[10] The guards were equipped with automatic rifles, machine guns, hand grenades, clubs, whips, and trained dogs.
[17] He recalls the shock he felt upon his first arrival at the camp, where he likened the prisoners to walking skeletons, dwarfs, and cripples in rags.
[10][18] Ahn estimates that about 30% of the prisoners had deformities, such as torn off ears, smashed eyes, crooked noses, and faces covered with cuts and scars resulting from beatings and other mistreatment.
[2]: 450–451 From the age of 6 onward they were work assigned, such as picking vegetables, peeling corn, or drying rice, but received very little food — only 360 g (13 oz) in all per day.
As a reward for good work, families were often allowed to live together in a single room inside a small house, without running water.
[24] Prisoners had to do hard physical labor in agriculture, mining, and inside factories from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. in winter),[11] followed by ideological re-education and self-criticism sessions.
[25] Kwon Hyuk, a former security officer in Camp 22, reported that corpses were loaded into cargo coaches together with the coal, to be burnt in a melting furnace.
[2]: 333–336 Ahn explained how the camp guards are taught that prisoners are factionalists and class enemies that have to be destroyed like weeds down to their roots.
[31] Kwon was required to visit the secret execution site[2]: 480 a number of times; there, he saw disfigured and crushed bodies.
[40] Rape and sexual violence are very common in the camp,[2]: 489 as female prisoners know they may be easily killed if they resist the demands of the security officers.
[41] Ahn reported about hundreds of prisoners each year being taken away for several “major construction projects”,[42] such as secret tunnels, military bases, or nuclear facilities in remote areas.
[45] Satellite images from late 2012 showed the detention centre and some of the guard towers being razed, but all other structures appeared operational.
[4] It was further reported that the camp was shut down in June, security guards removed traces of detention facilities until August[46] and then miners from Kungsim mine[4] and farmers from Saebyol and Undok were moved into the area.