The Gates of Hell: 42.471N, 129.824E

These are the gates though which prisoners enter Camp 22 in North Hamgyeong province. Camp 22 is the largest and worst of North Korea’s prison camps, with some portions set aside as a “life imprisonment zone” for prisoners who will never leave. Escaped prisoners and guards report that prisoners are killed in a gas chamber in the camp’s administration area, approximately 8 miles down the road in the background (no high-resolution photograph of the administration area is available on Google Earth, but is available here). According to a recent report attributed to British intelligence, infants, the handicapped, and other prisoners are subjected to lethal biological warfare experiments there.

The camp’s fence is clearly visible on the left and bottom of this image. The faint light patches in intervals along the fence line are guard towers.