The Hidden Gulag - US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea

The Hidden Gulag Second Editionhis mother and father in China, and that comingto North Korea had been a mistake. One of histwo co-workers reported this disloyalty. Bo-wi-bupolice agents, who ran a ku-ryu-jang punishment/detention facility within the generally An-jeon-buadministered camp, came to take his father away,never to return. The agents told the family thattheir father was a traitor to the nation.Former Prisoner # 29 was assigned to a schoolin the mornings, and had to do various workassignments in the afternoon. If there was noproductive work available, the children wererequired to dig holes, only to fill them up again.He was constantly hungry, saying that therewere more days when he didn’t eat than dayswhen he did. In the winter he was constantlycold, as the family had bartered away all theclothes they brought with them from Pyongyangfor food. He lost fingernails to frostbite, and hisfront teeth to beatings. In his five years in thecamp he was compelled to watch ten executionsby firing squad, eight for escape attempts andtwo for “destructive behavior,” that is, sabotageof camp machinery.In some respects however, the “re-revolutionizingzone” was better than life in the “total controlzone” areas of the camp. While there wereno newspapers from the outside, there was anoccasional two page internal camp newsletter. Itmostly contained production statistics from thevarious coal faces and pits within the camp. Itwas occasionally possible for the residents of the“re-revolutionizing zone” to watch television setsthat were set up near the coal mine entrances.In November 1983, he and his mother werecalled in with a group of forty others and toldthat under the consideration of the Great Leaderand the Party they were being returned to society.“From now on, never forget this blessing andalways be loyal to the Party,” they were told.Former Prisoner # 29 was assigned to be a minerat the Culsan iron ore mine in Bukchang County,South Hamgyong province. This was the site, hesaid, of former Kwan-li-so No. 17. But he wasnever allowed to return to Pyongyang.During the decade, he mined iron ore. Knowinghis father had relatives in China, he tried tocontact them since he could send and receiveletters by mail. In 1993, he received a responseto a letter he sent two years earlier. After severalexchanges of letters, in 1997, owing to the severefood shortage in North Korea, he traveled toMusan to get help from his relatives in China.Shortly thereafter he fled to China, and arrivedin South Korea in October of 2000.Kim Yong Testimony about Kwan-li-so No.18 (1996–September 1998)(Continued from his testimony on Camp 14,page 51 above)As noted above, in 1996, Kim Yong was transferredfrom Camp No. 14 to the adjacent CampNo. 18, located on the other side of the TaedongRiver in Dukchang-ri, Bukchang-kun, SouthPyongan. Mr. Kim believes he was transferredthrough the intervention of his boss at the AsahiTrading Company, which as noted above, wasa foreign currency raising enterprise within theBo-wi-bu police agency. At Camp No. 18, hewas assigned to repair coal trolleys. There, tohis surprise—as he did not know if or where76