“When I was at the Ipsok-ni, all the work unit chiefs were under the control of the SSA officer in charge. There was a supervisor at the engineer battalion and an SSA officer was the battalion commander who was discharged from the military service. Under him were a clerk and company commanders. SSA officers often interviewed prisoners for the purpose of issuing a warning or punishment by sending the prisoner concerned to a punishment cell in the prison. At Yongpyong-ni as well, there was an SSA officer and a supervisor under him. Prisoners were taken to a punishment cell under the charge of reactionary spy activities for any slightly suspicious activity. The clerk and sub-division work unit chiefs spy on the prisoners. Prisoners must always be very cautious with what they are saying. At Yongpyong-ni, the discipline meetings are replaced by ideological struggle meetings during which prisoners are encouraged to beat each other.” (Kim Yong-sun, former prisoner from Ipsok, Camp No. 15) “When we were at work in the camp, we were organized by a unit of five prisoners and there was a chief at each unit. There is a supervisor above all unit chiefs. The supervisor directed the work by prisoners and inspected the progress of work against the work quota.” (Kang Chul-hwan, former prison from Ipsok-ni, Camp No. 15) “Each village office has 12 sectors, with a chief assigned to each sector. Each sector is made up of four people’s units, with unit chiefs assigned accordingly. Instructions arrive from the village office for the sector chief, who in turn passes instructions on to the people’s unit chiefs. Prisoners have to be on night-vigilance or security duty every night rotated in shifts. So, a prisoner can expect to be on night vigilance duty every 2-3 nights. Such duty is not based on hourly assignments. You stay near a fire and watch residents all night. You have to watch the comings and goings to the houses within your responsibility, e.g.who slept at the prisoners’ houses, as a basis for a report to the sector chief the following morning. Daily reports are submitted to the village office, then up the chain to the control chief. This system of surveillance makes life very hard for everyone.” (A09, former prisoner, from PPC No. 18, 1975~2000) “Life in the Control Center causes everyone to suspect everyone else. You have to be extremely cautious with what you are saying to anyone, even though you may be on quite friendly terms with someone. They just may be spies for the SSA or police. Police and SSA officers at different times took me to their offices and said such things as, ‘all the sons-of-bitches here are landlords, members 87