of unknown cases represent guilt by association. Therefore, in reality, the total
percentage of offenses that involve guilt by association will be very high. The
witness A01 from PPC No. 18 testifies:
“My father was married and brought to the Control Center
with mom. He did not commit any crime and I was told that he was
brought there because of the activities of my grandfather. We didn’t
know precisely why my father was there and why I was born there.
We were settlers.24 I never considered myself the son of a criminal. I
did not know that I was the son of a criminal.” (A01, former prisoner
from PPC NO. 18, 1972~1984)
Former prisoners offer a variety of charges as causes for other
prisoners to be detained at the PPC on the basis of their own experience.
Further study would be needed to determine whether their information
suggests the actual character of PPC in which they were being detained or
individual perceptions.
“Political prisoners arrive at No. 22. Their entire family is
brought if Kim Il-sung was very angrily criticized. The prisoners at No.
22 are not like ordinary workers. Generally, they were high-ranking
and intelligent. Mostly, they are senior party members, B.A. or Ph. D
degree holders. They are all here for the mistakes they made in their
speeches.” (A02, a family member of camp official No. 22, 1994)
“I was brought here because my husband made a
comment during his office conference to the effect that it is acceptable
for a father to appoint his son to succeed him, but holding his son’s
picture aloft is not appropriate when the father is still alive. That
statement became a problem at his office. Because of it, he was
brought here straightaway. The entire family was also brought here”
(A05, former prisoner from Ipsok-ni, PPC No. 15, 1976~1980)
“In Chongsong, there were many former landlords and their
families, including children. When the People’s Army was pushed to
the north and Hwanghae Province was occupied by the South Korean
Army during the Korean War, many former landlords and their
children returned to claim or sell their lands, etc. When the People’s
Army regained the areas, the NK government decided to eliminate
and apply dictatorship to the former landlords. I was told this is why
Chongsong was created in April, 1964 to relocate landlords and their
24
Prisoners in PPC are called ‘settlers.’ “Settlers removed from
restriction” are those
who completed their prison term but still stays in the same place
even after release.
63