Ogawa Haruhisa, former Professor of Tokyo University,16 noted that
PPC were established during the process of modifying the Juche Ideology.
The Juche Ideology was a creative ideology at its initial stage but in 1967, in
support of the adoption of Kim Il Sung’s absolute leadership, Juche Ideology
underwent modification, opponents were arrested and detained in PPC and,
as a result, North Korea has become a state of one party dictatorship, secret
police and PPC of the most cruel form, a symbol of totalitarianism. The study
by Ogawa, in conformity with the study of Huh Man-ho, has made it clear that
PPC have been maintained as a means of suppression of people17.
Huh Son-haeng (2008)18 presented a systematic description of the
realities of human rights violations in the operation of PPC and expounded on
the function of PPC in the North Korean system of suppression of people on
the basis of interviews with a large number of hidden witnesses. His study is
outstanding in that it tracks development of PPC by period and by individual
pcc,beyond the limit of a simple observation. However, his study has not
explained in what way the fact of detention of political prisoners was effective
for the suppression of people.
16
Ogawa Haruhisa, “Inter-relationship between Juche Ideology and Political
Prisoners’ Camps,” Tongillo, May Issue, 2000, pp.24-31
17
The study by Huh Man-ho and Ogawa Haruhisa on the Institution and
Progress of Political Prisoners’ Camps was introduced at an international
human rights conference on North Korea, organized by the Citizens’ Alliance
for North Korean Human Rights.
18
Huh Son-haeng, “A Study on the System and Reality of NK Human Rights
Violation-the Case of PPC,” paper submitted for Master’s Degree, 2008, Korea
University.
20