Page 115 - Trilateral Korea Japan U.S. Cooperation

Hamgyong Province). He was held there on suspicion of
being a spy of South Korea because Mr. Jeong had engaged in
trading with South Korean citizens. During the ten months
he spent in detention, Mr. Jeong was given so little food that
his weight dropped from 75 to 36 kilograms.

In order to make him confess, Mr. Jeong was beaten
with clubs, while hanging upside down. Like numerous other
witnesses interviewed by the Commission, Mr. Jeong was
also subjected to the so-called ‘pigeon torture.’

“Your hands are handcuffed behind your back. And
then they hang you so you would not be able to stand or sit,’
Mr. Jeong described. On repeated occasions, Mr. Jeong had to
spend a full three days at a time in the pigeon torture stress
position, enduring excruciating pain.”

The U.N. Human Rights Council Commission Report gives
another horrific account:

“A former SSD official described how a special torture
chamber existed at the SSD interrogation detention facility
in the province where the witness was deployed. The torture
chamber was equipped with a water tank, in which suspects
could be immersed until the suspect would fear drowning. The
room also had wall shackles that were specially arranged to
hang people upside down. Various other torture instruments
were also provided, including long needles that would be
driven underneath the suspect’s fingernails and a pot with a
water-hot chili pepper concoction that would be poured into
the victim’s nose. As a result of such severe torture, suspects

114 Section II : Human Rights, Abductees, Forced Repatriation of Refugees and the Regional Implications