Currently, there are five Political Prison Camps and approximately 80,000~ 120,000 people are imprisoned here.

1. Since 1947, North Korea has operated collective gulag to accommodate landowners, pro-Japanese and religious people.
2. After the June 25 war in 1950, mainly accommodated the participants who works for security forces.
3. In 1956, imprisoned the anti-Kim Il Sung Molecule after ‘the August sectarian case’.
4. In 1966, accommodated people were classified as hostile hierarchy through resident registration project.
5. Since the 1970s, accommodated the anti-Kim Jong Il hereditary regime, opponents with their families in Prison Camps.
6. In the end of the 1980s, the socialist countries of the East collapsed, strengthening internal control and expanding Political Prison Camps.
7. Since the mid-1990s, the "arduous march" began, NK defectors and religious activists and their families were imprisoned.
8. Since the late 2000s, Kim Jung Eun has established a succession system and expanded Political Prison Camps for purging

The National Security Agency and the People 's Security Agency are investigating and punishing political criminals and administering facilities for political prisoners.

The types of punishment for detainees in political prison camps include public executions and secret executions, transfer of outside facilities, detention of internal secret facilities, punitive labor, identification, public criticism, delayed release and conversion to life sentence.

Political Prison Camps are self-sufficiency systems, and they use their own production and use of agricultural products and industrial products.