Families of North Korean defectors sent to internment camps

PYONGYANG, North Korea, Jan. 23 (UPI) -- North Korea has started sending families of defectors to internment camps near the country's border with China, the Chosun Ilbo reported Thursday.

The exiles are part of the North Korean State Security Department's plan to remove families of defectors to collective villages before April 15, the newspaper report said Thursday.

The plan targets the families of North Korean defectors who left the country after leader Kim Jong Un came to power in 2012.

An unnamed official said hundreds of families from Pyongyang have been sent to live in villages in remote mountainous areas.