Yodok Control Center. It was three or four o’clock in the afternoon. We continued by car and arrived at a SSA officers’ village and signed papers there. There was a wall in front of the guard post with a watch tower and guards. We passed four more guard posts in the next 30 minutes and observed walls and barbed wire. This was the Control Center in which I was to be detained.” (A06, former prisoner from Sorimchon, Camp No. 15, 2003~2006) “Because you guys are…political prisoners, you must be re-educated here for three years. If you die here, your family will continue to remain under your criminal record. So, you must leave here alive. If you do a good job here, you may be released at the end of three years. If not, your detention here may be prolonged.” (A11, former prisoner, from Ipsok-ni, PPC No. 15, 1976~1980) “On the way to Yodok, we passed through Hwasong. There we met people from Yanggang Province and a man by the name of Park OO from Chongjin. We went to Yodok together by car. At Hwasong, they released me from my restraints and allowed me to sit in the front seat of a truck. My family arranged for an SSA officer connected to a mine to bring me a blanket, clothing, soap, a toothbrush, toothpaste and food for two days. This SSA officer accompanied me to Hwasong. The next day, a senior SSA officer called three of us to his office, one by one. He told me to stay at the Control Center for two years and to maintain good behavior while there. He told others to stay three years. In reality, I was there for three years. I noted that no prisoners were being released after just two years. I concluded I would be there for three years. Detention for three years was a kind of standard. But there were some prisoners, with poor work records, who stayed there for five years.” (A12, former prisoner, from Taesuk-ni, PPC No. 15 1994~1997) “We continued on our way for a long time and eventually arrived at our destination. There was a line drawn on the ground by white sand and barbed wire on the line. No guard box. The place looked ghastly with two searchlights projecting beams as far as 200 meters ahead and armed guards all around. A colonel told the guards something and the big gate bristling with barbed wire opened and our car passed. On the right side, there were black buildings with steep roofs. They were, I learned later, psychiatric patients’ wards, solitary cells, where prisoners who cannot move are detained. On the barbed wire, there was a sign reading, “Unit 2915, Korean People’s Security Guard.” I did not imagine, not even in my wildest dreams, that this was the Yodok PPC. Until I arrived at the gate, I didn’t have the slightest idea that I would become a prisoner myself at a PPC.” (Kim Yong-sun, former prisoner from Ipsok, PPC No. 15) 71