affidavit. Then, normally, he would tell the prisoners when they were to be released, e.g. tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. We suddenly became a member of mainstream society when we inked our fingerprints to the affidavit. We stopped working and freely walked around. Normally, prisoners are released first thing the next morning. When I was released, I was released with a woman from Kangwon Province. Her name was 00. She was young. I used to see this young girl at work. She was there for two years. The two persons detained with me at the camp were not released at that time. One of them had her detention term extended by one year. I don’t know what happened to the other woman by the name of Park 00” (A12, former prisoner, from Taesuk-ni, PPC No. 15 1994~1997) “In January, 1979, I was told to pack up my belongings all of a sudden. I was confused for a moment and struggled to comprehend what the “packing up” referred to. At the same time and almost immediately, I sensed that maybe I was to be released. I thought I was not going to be executed and then what should be afraid of? Including the period of investigation, I was detained for nine years and several months altogether. I was not worried about being sent to another location because the camp at Yongpyong-ni, in which I was detained, was the worst of the camps. All our family signed the affidavit with tears in their eyes and used all ten fingers to ink the affidavit.” (Kim Yong-sun, former prisoner from Yongpyong-ni, Camp No. 15) “In 1987, it was generally understood that, under the guise of interviews, secret investigations were actively being carried out to detect further information about families of Koreans from Japan. Everybody was cautious when speaking and the dread of further punishment was widespread in the villages where Koreans from Japan were detained. My grandmother had a long interview with an SSA officer, during which time she had to answer so many questions about her family. Questions probed who her relatives were in Japan, what kinds of businesses they were engaged in, which town in Korea her family originated from, when they emigrated to Japan and etc. One day we were told to be neatly dressed up and to assemble in the hall of Work Unit No. 1 at 8 o’clock in the morning on the 26th of February, the birthday of Kim Jong-il. At the meeting, names were announced of prisoners to be released under the kind benevolence of the beloved leaders. At that time, the names of Song Ok-son and her four family members were announced for release. Ten long years of detention were coming to an end. We fingerprinted in ink an affidavit prepared by the SSA agreeing that we would not disclose the secrets of the PPC and would accept the consequence of re-arrest if we failed to abide by this solemn pledge of silence. We were given residents’ certificates and passed through the iron gate, then the main gate in a car.” (Kang Cholhwan, former prisoner from Ipsok-ni, Camp No. 15) 77