Maddy Albright, Are You Listening?

SEOUL, South Korea - Twenty-one members of North Korean cheering squads
who traveled to South Korea for international sports events are being held
in a prison camp for talking about what they saw in the South, a news
report said Friday.

Citing a North Korean man who recently fled to China, South Korea's Chosun
Ilbo newspaper said the 21 young women had been detained about last November
in the same prison camp where the man had been held.

South Korea's National Intelligence Service didn't immediately confirm or
deny the report.

In 2002, communist North Korea sent hundreds of female cheerleaders to the
Asian Games in South Korea's Busan, where their tightly synchronized routines
drew worldwide attention. The North sent similar cheering squads to South
Korea in 2003 and 2005.

The defector, whose real name wasn't given, said the female cheering squad
apparently violated a pledge not to speak about what they saw in South Korea,
the Chosun Ilbo reported.

Citing another unnamed defector, the newspaper said the cheerleaders had
pledged before going to South Korea that they would treat the country as
"enemy territory" and never speak about what they saw there, accepting
punishment if they broke the promise.

North Korea's government insists it doesn't abuse human rights, but it has
long been accused of holding political prisoners in camps under life-
threatening conditions.

Between 150,000 and 200,000 political prisoners are believed to be held in
the North, according to the U.S. State Department.

H/t to the Skivvy Nine Group