[USFK Forums] Out of the North, former prisoner knits family ties [JoongAng]

[C. Y. Lee]

Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, April 1, 2006

Out of the North, former prisoner knits family ties

In three waves, a POW brings his family to new life in South

The JoongAng Ilbo

April 01, 2006 ㅡ A South Korean prisoner of war in North Korea and his family have succeeded in coming to the South separately in a string of escapes that began in 2004. Choi Seong-yong, a human rights activist who heads the Abductee Family Assembly, described the family’s saga yesterday.

Lee Bok-hui, 33, and her son Kim Sun-kun, 2, and Ko Il-hyuck, 3, a cousin, arrived at Incheon International Airport yesterday and joined other family members who had been arriving here in a three-part odyssey that began two years ago.

Ms. Lee is the daughter of a former South Korean prisoner of war, Lee Ki-chun, 75, who managed to flee to the South nearly two years ago.

After his escape, Mr. Lee succeeded in arranging last June to bring his wife, Kim Sang-ok, to the South as well. She is now deceased. Three months later another daughter, Lee Bok-sil, 36, and her husband, Ko Yong-nam, 39, joined her father here.

This is only the second instance of an escape by family members of South Korean prisoners of war. All but Mr. Lee in this family are North Koreans; Mr. Lee married his wife there.

Yesterday’s arrivals came from the North via China, whose policies are hostile to such migrations.

Mr. Lee was a member of the Korean Augmentation Troops during the Korean War when he was captured by Chinese soldiers in North Pyongan province and was handed over to North Korean troops. In the North, he worked at a steel mill until he fled to the South with the help of a human rights group here.
Mr. Lee reportedly failed twice to cross the China-North Korea border in escape attempts, but was successful in November 2004.

Pyongyang has refused to acknowledge that it is holding any South Korean prisoners of war, saying that all South Koreans still there have asked to stay. Recent attempts by Seoul at inter-Korean Red Cross meetings to secure the return of an estimated 400 former soldiers still held there have failed.


by Lee Young-jong

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