by Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA (Worthy News)-- As many as 200,000 people are being held in North Korean labor camps; many inmates have no hope of release because their keeper's ideology considers human criminal behavior to last "for at least three generations," according to Jo Chung-Hee, a former Communist who converted to Christianity.

Chung-Hee said North Korea operates six labour camps, one of which works its prisoners to death; another camp conducts inhumane inmate experimentation and another, run by the North Korean secret police, holds religious leaders, alleged spies and their families.

Although the average sentence is 15 years, life expectancy in the camps is only seven.

Labor camps first appeared after the Korean conflict when North Korea's first president, Kim Il-sung, ordered their construction to hold South Korean PoWs; within five years, political dissidents and protesters were also interned, notably clergy and other religious who opposed Kim's brutal regime.