North Korea prison camps need closer monitoring, analyst says

SEOUL, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Detainees at North Korea's largest political prison camp could be deployed at Punggye-ri nuclear test site, but more monitoring is needed, a U.S. analyst said.

North Korea defense expert Joseph Bermudez said in a report issued jointly by the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea in Washington, D.C., and AllSource Analysis, that closer scrutiny is needed to determine whether or not prisoners are being forced to work at North Korea's nuclear test site.

"Continued monitoring of Camp 16 will help identify whether prisoners have been or are currently being used to support the Punggye-ri nuclear test site and determine the extent of human rights abuses at that camp," Bermudez wrote.

The defense analyst said North Korea's military capability has been diminishing, owing to "obsolescence of equipment, difficulty in training, and lowering of standards for soldiers following the overall decline in nutritional status of the population."

North Korea has said it continues to pursue nuclear weapons development despite international condemnations of Pyongyang, and recent satellite images showed a new tunnel was being excavated at Punggye-ri.

Kim Jong Un, however, acted cautiously on Oct. 10, the 70th anniversary of the Workers' Party, when he delivered a speech in the presence of China's No. 5 official Liu Yunshan, the Tokyo Shimbun reported.

Kim originally included statements regarding North Korea's missile development and was planning to use the term "nuclear power" in his speech, but those phrases were omitted out of consideration for the Chinese envoy.

The original statement "contained references to a 'desperate resistance' to the United States' North Korea crushing scheme, and a commitment to uphold [North Korea's] nuclear sovereignty," an unidentified source on the matter told Japan press.

North and South Korea have little to no civilian contact across the Korean demilitarized zone, but on Tuesday South Korean television network KBS reported Jeju Maritime and Coast Guard attempted to rescue 15 North Koreans on a cargo ship that was on fire.

The North Koreans on board managed to put out the fire, and did not request the South for additional help, according to the report.

The ship was en route to Shanghai, KBS reported.