article_snippet: The 270 boys aged 19-20 were the offspring of some of the regime's most loyal citizens - some of the few allowed to live in the capital outside of which the vast majority are stuck in grinding poverty in the countryside.
article_snippet: If any of they did know more the fear and the consequences of being exposed were so great they never let it be known.'
article_snippet: Many of the boy's families lived as little as 10 minutes drive away in Pyongyang, but they were hardly ever allowed to see they or have any contact at all during term time.
article_snippet: Downtown Pyongyang was only around 10 minutes drive from PUST, but students were never allowed out to visit students families during term time .
article_snippet: students were never allowed to see the world and be exposed to a world that isn't about the Great Leader . '
article_snippet: On the other hand the elites may have a had a bit more food and a bit more electricity but no one is spared in North Korea from the control of the military dictatorship. '
article_snippet: the elites are never allowed to move about freely in the world's most secretive country or exchange information.
article_snippet: It was really a gulag, nothing else.