HAN KIM v. DEMOCRATIC PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF KOREA Cite as 950 F.Supp.2d 29 (D.D.C. 2013) cal punishment.’’ Downs Decl. ¶ 11; see also Downs Supp. Decl. ¶ 11. Thus, ‘‘[p]risoners in North Korea’s political prisons do not often survive.’’ Downs Supp. Decl. ¶ 7. Downs states that he is aware of the testimony of 1000 former North Korean prisoners and Downs ‘‘does not know of any case in which the former prisoner was not subjected to torture while in the prison camp.’’ Downs Supp. Decl. ¶ 10. Downs provides numerous examples from former prisoners describing inmate mistreatment in DPRK prisons and facilities. In particular, Downs submits an excerpt from Hawk’s book The Hidden Gulag which recounts inmates who were subject to burnings, skin piercing, water torture, being hung by wrists or upside-down, sleep deprivation, food deprivation, facial and shin beatings with rifle butts, whippings with belts, beatings in the legs with a wooden stave, undersized punishment cells where detainees could not stand up or lie down and placement in punishment cells for a week or more. Id., Ex. 1 at 148–52. Downs also attaches an account of a prisoner who was hung by his hands and feet, stabbed in the lower abdomen and held over a fire until he lost consciousness. Id., Ex. 2 at 57–58. Downs also opines that ‘‘Reverend Kim’s killing was motivated by political considerations.’’ Downs Decl. ¶ 7. In his opinion, ‘‘a foreigner abducted by the DPRK for political purposes, such as Reverend Kim, after eleven years would still either be languishing in a North Korea prison camp or would have already been killed.’’ Id. ¶ 34. He ‘‘believe[s] that credible information on [Reverend Kim’s] treatment in North Korea has been obtained from defectors.’’ Id. He states that Reverend Kim probably was subjected to ‘‘severe beatings while in stress positions (such as while suspended from the ceiling), near starvation, and forced physical exertion to the point of absolute physical exhaustion.’’ Downs Supp. Decl. ¶ 9. In addition, Downs 39 asserts that he is certain that ‘‘Reverend Kim has been subject to exceptionally painful, brutal, and outrageous treatment while in prison.’’ Id. ¶ 8. Downs also states that ‘‘[c]redible sources have reported that Reverend Kim died as a result of his torture and malnutrition.’’ Id. ¶ 6(i). Thus, Downs concludes that Reverend Kim’s ‘‘death resulted from torture and malnutrition deliberately caused by his North Korean captors.’’ Id. ¶ 13. Downs neither identifies the former prisoners, the defectors or other credible sources for these conclusions, nor reveals their basis of knowledge about Reverend Kim, nor says he has spoken with any of them. Downs does not provide details from the credible information received concerning the severity of Reverend Kim’s beatings, such as their frequency, duration, the parts of the body at which they were aimed, or the weapons used to carry them out. Do Hee–Youn, a member of a South Korea-based human rights organization, heard ‘‘through the information net’’ that Reverend Kim died in North Korea as a result of torture and malnutrition in February 2001. Declaration of Do Hee–Youn (‘‘Do Hee–Youn Decl.’’) ¶ 13. Yoshikuni Yamamoto, a researcher at a human rights organization in Washington, DC, stated generally that ‘‘it was reported’’ that Reverend Kim was tortured after refusing to collaborate and that he died in February 2001 and was buried in District 91 military training base in Sangwon-ri near Pyongyang. Yamamoto Decl. ¶ 22. Neither declaration supplied details about the nature of the reported torture. Human Rights Watch released a 2007 report discussing the mistreatment of prisoners at detention facilities in North Korea. This report states that prisoners are subject to strip searches, verbal abuse and threats, beatings,