Kim Jong Eun's crackdown on border-crossing since taking power is leading to a drastic increase in political prison camp and labor camp inmate numbers, according to The Associated Press.

Following Kim Jong Eun's rise to power in 2010, he almost instantly ordered a clampdown of movement on the border between China and North Korea. This has had a drastic impact on the number of North Koreans arriving in South Korea over the past few months, with numbers down to 1,509 arriving in South Korea last year.

Refugees living in South Korea and researchers are the source of the claims of enlarged prisoner numbers. Insung Kim, researcher at the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights, stated that, "They are tightening the noose." He suggested that there has been a five-fold increase in the number of defectors detained in these camps over the last 10 years.

Attempting to leave the country has long been harshly punished. Transgressors of the law on border-crossing are likely to receive a term in a political prison or labor camp and, in some extreme cases, are executed.

Source: The Associated Press via Miami Herald