held down the electric barbed wire. Shin bore severe scars due to the electric shock. Unfortunately, his friend died immediately. Afterwards, Shin hid in China for a year and at the end of last year, he defected to [South] Korea.
On the Total Control Zone:
There are two types of political prison camps operated by North Korean authorities to control and regulate the people.
The first is a “revolutionizing zone”, where people with little threat to the existence of the regime are confined. After a period of forced labor and re-education, people may even have the chance to return to society. Yoduk Camp 15 located in South Kamkyung falls under this category.
On the other hand, the “total-control zone” is for malicious people that must be removed from North Korea completely. Once you are sentenced to this camp, you may never return to society and must live there eternally. People imprisoned in the “total-control zone” usually meet their death fatigued from forced labor.
As the people in the total-control zone are considered unworthy of revolutionary ideals, there aren’t even any photos of Kim Il Sung or Kim Jong Il within the camp nor are there any ideological classes on Kim Il Sung’s revolutionary history. In order to keep living, a person is forced to work 12~15 hours as a levy for some food. They must live in complete isolation and only engage in activities that will lead to production.
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