1) Information from testimonies of North Korean defectors in PPC It is documented that the first testimonies about the PPC were provided by Kang Hyong-sun, a former North Korean State Security Agency (SSA) official, who surrendered to South Korea in 1979 and Kim Yong-jun who surrendered in 1982. However, they did not have actual experience in PPC and the information they provided was based on indirect sources, such as acquiring the knowledge at training sessions or visits to the camps. Nevertheless, their accounts constituted the shedding of new light on the existence of such camps in North Korea.1 The first reliable information about PPC was made available from former PPC prisoners or those who were actually involved with the operation of PPC, whose arrival in South Korea occurred in the 1990s. Kang Chul-hwan and Ahn Hyok who arrived in South Korea in 1992 published a book describing their life as a prisoner in PPC No. 15, Yodok Camp, South Hamkyong Province of North Korea, a high-security camp (Revolutionary Zone)2. The information about the realities of PPC became public when Ahn Myong-chul, former guard at PPC No. 22 at Hweryong and PPC No. 13 in Onsong, North Korea, disclosed the horrendous condition in these PPC in a book he published in 19953. Thus, detailed testimonies pertaining to the conditions in the PPC have become available as the number of North Korean defectors arriving in North Korea has increased in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st Century. In fact, the annual number of North Korean defectors arriving in 1 Total Control Zone, a Product of Fascist Dictatorship, Chosun Daily, 13 Apr.1982, pp2 2 Religious Service of a Great King, Kang CH/AH, Vol.1-3, 1993, Hyangshil, Seoul 3 “They Are Crying,” Ahn Myong-chol, 1995, Chonji Media, Seoul 11