North Korea continues to demolish confinement facilities inside Camp 15, one of its most infamous political prison camps, a US broadcaster reported Thursday, citing satellite images taken in September.

Radio Free Asia said, however, it is too early to conclude that the moves amount to the shutdown of the camp, better known as "Yodok Camp."

Located in Yodok County, South Hamkyong Province, the vast concentration camp is internationally known through testimonies by North Korean defectors who have escaped from it. They have described terrible human rights violations against inmates there, including harsh labor conditions, beatings and torture.


"Confinement facilities in the camp are continuously being pulled down, although guard posts, barbed wire fences and administrative buildings there still exist," the broadcaster said, adding that three confinement facilities had already been removed earlier this year.

The demolition work is currently under way in 30 areas inside the camp, according to the broadcaster.

Curtis Melvin, a researcher at the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University, also noted that the demolition work that began in 2014 has been confirmed to be ongoing via satellite images taken in June 2016 and February, April and September 2017, according to the broadcaster. (Yonhap)