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Today” describing the way the North Korean people live as accurately as
possible. We at Good Friends also hope to be a bridge between the North Korean
people and the world.]
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Military-Officers Arrested Last Year by
Storm Troopers Imprisoned at the Defense Security Discipline Center
Many Return
after Ideological Correction in Discipline Centers of the Defense Security
Command
Officer Inmates are Able to Survive
Thanks to Family Visits
Soldiers' Families are "Not even
aware of their sons being sent to Discipline Centers"
Defense Security Command Orders: “If anyone
attempts escape, shoot to kill”
__________________________________________________________________________
Military-Officers Arrested Last Year by Storm Troopers
Imprisoned at the Defense Security Discipline Center
Most of the military officers who were
arrested last summer by the Storm trooper Command that swept through Ryangang
Island and North Pyongan Province were sent to the discipline center of the
Defense Security Command. At the time, security officers and policemen, as well
as senior military officials, battalion commanders, company commanders, and
platoon leaders were arrested at the border areas. They were arrested for
illicit trafficking, river-crossing offenses, and anti-socialistic behaviors,
and were investigated by the Defense Security Command.
The
people who were able to elude imprisonment with enormous bribes and avoid being
sent to the re-education center were instead sent mainly to the discipline
center of Defense Security Command. In general, after spending 3 to 6 months in
the discipline center, some people either went back to their hometown after
being expelled from the Party and their jobs, or were reinstated to their job
if their ideological remodeling is approved after evaluation. Offering more
money to the Defense Security Command makes it easier to be reinstated.
Last
year, however, the personnel were changed due to the new leadership, and so
people were punished irrelevant to the gravity of their offense. A Central
Party officer stated that among those arrested people from the Storm trooper's
investigation, in general the main targets of the replacement operation were
sent to re-education centers, while the rest were sent to the discipline
center.
Many Return after Ideological Correction in Discipline Centers
of the Defense Security Command
A
discipline center of the Defense Security Command is located in Kumya County,
South Hamgyong province. It is a place which is directly managed by the Defense
Security Command and where people are either reinstated after having undergone
an intense ideological correction, or discharged into society after
deinstitutionalization. Many people from National Border Patrol
Headquarters-affiliated border patrol units, such as brigades, battalions,
companies and platoons, go there after having been caught smuggling or exposed
helping people cross the river. Besides them, convicts who, during their
general military service, hurt farmers while stealing their produce, or
convicts who have committed robberies in the mountains go there as well. Since
the goal is the rebuilding of ideology, the time share devoted to ideological
studies is large. In each work detail, an instructor with the rank of major is
stationed who instructs the center’s inhabitants and oversees the labor. Days
are a repetition of all-day labor from 4.30 in the morning until 9 o’clock in
the evening, with 30 to 40 minutes of mealtime. After finishing the evening
meal at 9 pm, political ideology is taught until 11.15 pm, the main content of
the lessons being the greatness of The Great Leader Kim Il-Sung and Comrade Kim
Jong-Il. Due to this repetition of only getting to bed after midnight and
having to get up at 4.30 am, they all suffer greatly. There are many cases
where high-ranking officers, in contrast to private soldiers, are
rehabilitated. Whether it is because of this treatment is unclear, but they
tend to display more enthusiasm for the ideology education lessons than private
soldiers. Young non-commissioned officers aged 18-20 are generally reinstated
in case the commanding officers of their units put in such a request.
Officer Inmates are Able to
Survive Thanks to Family Visits
One of the advantages given to officer
inmates but not allowed to regular inmates is monthly visit by their family.
According to the visiting regulations family visit is allowed only once every 6
months for soldiers, but the monthly visit is allowed solely for the officers.
Some of the officers previously served in Border Defense Headquarters, who have
good business skills can even receive food brought by visitors to supplement
their meals. These people can receive these benefits by bribing the visiting
room duty officer with money that was earned at the border area. However, this
is only true for one out of ten people, and most officer inmates survive on
corn power their wives bring to them once a month. The food at the discipline
center consists merely of a powdered corn cob porridge and diluted seaweed soup
with salt water; or sometimes bean-paste soup and pickled radish are available.
Because of this scantiness, many people suffer from malnutrition. Medicine is
not available when people become unwell; hence the family’s visit is
desperately awaited. Since inmates normally do not receive any medical
treatment, their wives, parents, or siblings bring them general medicine such
as anti-diarrhea remedies, cold medicine, and fever reducers along with food.
The medicine, although given to the trainees by their family, does not go
directly to them. Instead, the visiting room duty officer takes it and
transfers it to the foreman of the working unit, and then the foreman keeps it
until the recipient makes a request. The family members always prepare
cigarettes to offer the duty officer or the guard for ensuring the safe
delivery to their husbands or sons without getting into trouble. Food and
medicine are generally delivered well, but other items from a visit are not
easily approved for delivery.
Soldiers' Families are "Not even
aware of their sons being sent to Discipline Centers"
Unmarried noncommissioned officers (NCOs)
or soldiers caught for crimes related to the Military and the People such as
stealing farm crops or filching money from passersby normally do not have any
friends or family members visit them in prison. Those who fall sick and die or
become depleted due to malnutrition are usually these NCOs or soldiers. In
Discipline Centers one cannot comfortably be sick. This is because if they are
on sick leave for one week, their discipline training period is extended that
extra week. All, with one goal of getting out of the Discipline Center as soon
as possible, try to complete work days even on days of illness. If looked over
by an armed and picky officer, one cannot work slowly or inefficiently even
when sick. A concerned person expressed it this way: "One does not know
how harsh the workload is unless they experience it. Towards the end of last
year, a laborer went to work even when he was excreting bloody urine and died a
short while later. Those who helplessly lose their lives are normally the
Discipline Center members with a punishment period of a year or longer. The
families of high ranking officers come to visit often, but the families of NCOs
or normal soldiers cannot." To a question asking about the family ordinary
soldiers must have, he replied "the military unit does not notify the
family. How would the family come visit if they are unaware their children are
in the Discipline Centers in the first place?" Patients with acute
diseases with a small chance of survival are recommended by the military
hospital to be sent home, but the approval of the decision itself takes around
3 months, so many of the patients die in that waiting period.
Defense
Security Command Orders: “If anyone attempts escape, shoot to kill”
The labor intensity at the discipline center for the Defense Security
Command is much higher than other that of other discipline centers. There are
no breaks during working hours. To use the restroom, one must pair up with
another person in order to prevent the individual from running away. In case
one does succeed in escaping, the other person’s training period is extended
for another year. The system makes it so that everyone is constantly monitoring
each other and places mistrust within individuals. Those caught while escaping
receive a 10-year sentence at the Re-education Center. To prevent escapees, the
supervisor and team leaders perform roll call or call out numbers every 15
minutes. Everyday work and especially migrating work is overseen by safety
personnel from squadrons or platoons of the Defense Security Command with armed
surveillance. An average group of 50 workers are monitored by an armed
seven-person safety squad at all times. The Defense Security Command Training
Center has a concrete fence five to six meters tall. At night, a searchlight
and four machine guns keep watch at the fence. Because of the tight security,
almost no one dreams of escaping. Furthermore, after a command to shoot and
kill any runaways was passed down, no one has dared any attempt to run. Gang
fights and assaults are next on the list of top concerns of the labor training
center. Because these men are trained soldiers, fights within the trainees lead
to serious violence. Conflicts arising from differing opinions result in
disciplinary punishment upon a group and ten days of
extended training.
