[USFK Forums] Two Articles on North Korean Abduction [JoongAng]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, January 21, 2006

Two articles from the JoongAnd Daily are uploaded as follow:

Suit presses cases of abductees

January 18, 2006 ㅡ Their patience with the government exhausted, family members of South Koreans abducted to the North in the 1950s have filed suit in Seoul seeking financial compensation from the administration for its inaction.

Lee Mi-il, 47, a spokeswoman for the families, yesterday criticized the administration for not doing enough to rescue its citizens, including her father. She said that she has lived in her father’s home for the past 50 years in the hope that Lee Seong-hwan, now 86, can return to it.

But she added, “My mother is 85 already; she could die at any time.” The lawsuit, filed at the Seoul Central District Court by the Korean War Abductees’ Family Union, accuses the government of dereliction of duty.

The union has asked the Unification Ministry four times in the past five years, Ms. Lee said, to compile a list of abductees. There has been no action; the ministry replied earlier this year that a process of compiling a comprehensive list of abductees would start as soon as a law dealing with the issue of abducted Koreans is passed.

“We can’t wait any longer. There is no telling when the law will be passed,” Ms. Lee said.

Seoul’s refusal to put the matter at the forefront of inter-Korean relations has brought flak from several civic groups and opposition political parties, who say they do not understand why Seoul continues to keep North Korea afloat with massive annual rice and fertilizer assistance without demanding action on the return of kidnapped South Koreans and prisoners of war.

The group has quoted Defense Ministry estimates that 400 prisoners of war or abducted South Korean civilians could be alive in the North today.

by Ha Je-sik, Brian Lee

Blue House: taking steps on abductees to the North

January 17, 2006 ㅡ The Blue House yesterday responded to a posting on its web site from Choi Wu-yeong, the daughter of a fisherman who was kidnapped by North Korean agents, asking for more attention to the abductee issue, by extending its condolences and saying it is taking diverse steps to solve the problem.

“Solving the problem [of South Koreans kidnapped by North Korea] is the government’s basic responsibility and there has been some progress, although it may seem trivial to the families of the missing persons. We will make efforts to utilize opportunities such as ministerial talks in the future to address the problem more aggressively,”

Blue House spokesman Kim Man-soo told reporters.He said that of the 480 South Koreans kidnapped by the North between 2000 and 2005, the whereabouts of 55 have been traced and 11 have met with family members in the South.

Spokesman Kim, however, noted that Mr. Roh had not made a direct comment on the matter. “The stance of the Blue House has not been established because of Ms. Choi’s letter ― we have merely stated our original position,” he said.

On Sunday, Ms. Choi, 36, posted a letter addressed to President Roh Moo-hyun on the Blue House Web site, asking that the president assist in the return of her father, Choi Jong-seok, who was abducted in 1987 with fellow shipmates while fishing in the East Sea.

“On Parents’ Day this year, I hope to pin a carnation on my father’s breast,” Ms. Choi wrote. She said that her father had few days left in his life, and requested that the president take North Korean abductee problems into his own hands.

“Former President Kim Dae-jung did his best to send back communist prisoners to North Korea and now we need a president that will do his best to bring back those that were abducted to the north. I hope President Roh Moo-hyun will be that president,” Ms. Choi wrote.


by Wohn Dong-hee, Choi Hoon



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