An estimated 84,532[1] South Koreans were taken to North Korea during the Korean War. In addition, South Korean statistics claim that, since the Korean Armistice Agreement in 1953, about 3,800 people have been abducted by North Korea (the vast majority in the late 1970s), 489 of whom were still being held in 2006.[2]
South Korean abductees by North Korea are categorized into two groups, wartime abductees and post-war abductees.
Koreans from the south who were kidnapped to the north against their wishes during the 1950–53 Korean War and died there or are still being detained in North Korea are called wartime abductees or Korean War abductees. Most of them were already educated or skilled, such as politicians, government officials, scholars, educators, doctors, judicial officials, journalists, or businessmen.[3] [4] According to testimonies by remaining family members, most abductions were carried out by North Korean soldiers who had specific names and identification in hand when they showed up at people's homes. This is an indication that the abductions were carried out intentionally and in an organized manner.[5]
South Koreans who were kidnapped by North Korean agents in the South Korean territory or foreign countries after the armistice was signed in 1953 are known as post-war abductees. Most of them were captured while fishing near the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), but some were abducted by North Korean agents in South Korea. North Korea continued to abduct South Koreans into the 2000s, as is shown by the cases of the Reverend Kim Dong-shik (Korean: 김동식), who was abducted on January 16, 2000,[6] and Jin Gyeong-suk (Korean: 진경숙), a North Korean defector to South Korea who was abducted on August 8, 2004, when she had returned to the China-North Korea border region using her South Korean passport.[7]
During wartime, North Korea kidnapped South Koreans to increase its human capacity for rehabilitation after the war. It recruited intelligentsia who were exhausted in North Korea and kidnapped those needed for post-war rehabilitation, technical specialists, and laborers. There was an intention to drain the intelligentsia of South Korean society, exacerbate societal confusion, and promote communization of South Korea by making post-war rehabilitation difficult due to the shortage of technical specialists and youth. They also had the intention to guise the abductions as voluntary entry for the advancement of their political system.[8]
In his Complete Works, Volume IV, dated July 31, 1946, North Korean leader Kim Il Sung wrote: "In regards to bringing Southern Chosun's[9] intelligentsia, not only do we need to search out all Northern Chosun's intelligentsia in order to solve the issue of a shortage of intelligentsia, but we also have to bring Southern Chosun's intelligentsia."[10]
In the case of post-war abductees, Yoichi Shimada,[11] a Fukui University professor in Japan, states that North Korea appeared to abduct foreign citizens to:
These six patterns are not mutually exclusive. Especially numbers 2, 3, and 4 derive from Kim Jong Il's secret order of 1976 to use foreign nationals more systematically and thereby improve the quality of North Korean spy activities, contributing to his "localization of spy education."[12]
Further, better-educated people could be employed by the institutions responsible for waging propaganda campaigns against the South in, say, their broadcast facilities.[13]
North Korea has shown different positions on the abduction issue.
Regarding the alleged abduction of Japanese nationals, on September 17, 2002, the North Korean Government officially admitted to the kidnapping of 13 Japanese citizens at a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi.[14]
As for the South Korean abduction issue, North Korea has consistently claimed that there are no South Korean abductees in North Korea. After the Armistice in 1953, North Korea refused the release of South Korean wartime abductees despite a provision allowing civilian abductees to return home in Article III of the Korean War Armistice Agreement,[15] a document signed by representatives from the United States, North Korea, and China. Instead, North Korea only returned 19 foreigners to the South.[16]
In regards to the post-war abductees, North Korea insists that the South Koreans defected to North Korea, and remain there of their own free will, but refuses to allow South Korean relatives to communicate with them. Despite the testimonies of former abductees who have escaped from the North on their own, North Korea has held fast to the existing position: "There are no South Korean abductees and we cannot confirm their existence." The former husband of Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota, himself a suspected abductee from the South, was allowed to meet his South Korean mother in 2006, but Yokota's parents called the meeting a publicity stunt by North Korea, meant to isolate his daughter from her Japanese family, as the man has now remarried a native North Korean and has a son with her.
The Seoul government has clarified that resolving the Korean War POW and abductee issue is not only part of the Korean government's basic responsibility for protecting its citizens but one of the highest priorities. But despite the South Korean government's official urging for the North Korean government to deal with the abduction issue, there have been no substantial results so far. Since the inter-Korean Summit held in 2000, the South and the North dealt with the abduction issue at the talks; the second South–North Summit, inter-Korean Prime Minister talk, and rounds of ministerial-level or inter-Korean Red Cross talks.
Because North Korea has been denying the existence of abductees and POWs on its territory, since November 2000, the South Korean government has been trying to resolve the issue through a more realistic approach of including the abductees and POWs in the category of separated families. By doing so, families of POWs or abductees also could participate in the normal reunion events that were organized for families separated by the war.As a result of these efforts, a total of 38 families of abductees and POWs were able to meet their family members in North Korea, and the fates of 88 people were confirmed.[21]
In contrast with the official policies, the 2014 United Nations Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the DPRK states that the South Korean government has not been willing to raise the issue with North Korea, thinking of the abductions in political rather than humanitarian terms. Further, the report says that "Well over 200,000 persons who were taken from other countries to the DPRK may have potentially become victims of enforced disappearance, as defined in the Declaration for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance" and "Most post-war abductee family members that have applied to attend a separated family reunion have received notification at the life status verification stage of the process, that their loved one has since deceased or their life status cannot be verified. Given the high level of surveillance on those of South Korean origin, and the nature of DPRK monitoring in society in general, from the Inmin-wiwon-oei (regional level) down to the Inminban (Neighbourhood Watch), the Commission finds it difficult to believe that life status verification is not possible in the DPRK."
Separately from talks with North Korea, the South Korean government enacted on April 2, 2007, the "Law for the Victims of Abduction to the North in the Post-War Years (or, the law concerning the assistance and compensation for the abducted persons since the Korean War Armistice Agreement)". Based on this law, the abducted persons, upon return to South Korea, will be entitled to receive assistance and, together with their family members, will be entitled to compensation for the human rights infringements sustained during the period. By this law, on October 16, 2007, the South Korean government formed the "Committee for the Compensation of the Victims of Abduction to the North."
Owing to the special situation of wartime, the exact number of Korean War abductees is difficult to determine. There are considerable differences in the numbers cited in various published documents and statistics. Overall range of the numbers is from 2,438[22] to 84,532.[23] When the Korean National Red Cross set a special re-registration period to compile a list of missing people or the so-called "displaced people" in 1956, a total of 7,031 people registered. On February 26, 1957, the South delivered the list of 7,034 people to the North through the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC).[24] [25] But according to the survey of "Korean War Abductees' Family Union" in March 2002, its number amounts to 94,700.[26]
After the Korean War or during the Cold War period, a total of 3,795 people have been abducted and taken to North Korea. Subsequently, through the South Korean government's protests and various efforts via the Korean National Red Cross, 3,309 people have returned to South Korea. And six persons have recently escaped from the North and returned to the South Korea on their own. A total of 480 South Korean abductees remain in North Korea against their will (as of December 2007).Below chart shows status of abducted persons by year.[27]
| Year | Number Abducted | Total | Year | Number Abducted | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1955 | 10 | 10 | 1973 | 8 | 392 | |
| 1957 | 2 | 12 | 1974 | 30 | 422 | |
| 1958 | 23 | 35 | 1975 | 31 | 453 | |
| 1964 | 16 | 51 | 1977 | 3 | 456 | |
| 1965 | 19 | 70 | 1978 | 4 | 460 | |
| 1966 | 4 | 74 | 1980 | 1 | 461 | |
| 1967 | 42 | 116 | 1985 | 3 | 464 | |
| 1968 | 127 | 243 | 1987 | 13 | 477 | |
| 1969 | 19 | 262 | 1995 | 1 | 478 | |
| 1970 | 36 | 298 | 1999 | 1 | 479 | |
| 1971 | 20 | 318 | 2000 | 1 | 480 | |
| 1972 | 66 | 384 |
| Division | Total | Fishermen | Korean Air | 1-2 boat | Others | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abduction | 3,796 | 3,696 | 50 | 24 | 26 | |
| Detention | 480 | 427 | 11 | 24 | 18 |
On May 28, 1955, a South Korean fishing boat, the Daesung-ho, with a crew of ten fishermen, was hijacked by North Korean authorities. Since then, North Korean agents have hijacked numerous South Korean ships and kidnapped the seamen and fishermen aboard the vessels. In total, 3,696 fishermen[29] and 120-plus fishing boats were seized by North Korea.
After strong protests from South Korean government, North Korea has repatriated 3,262 fishermen. An additional six fishermen have returned home to South Korea on their own between 2000 and 2007. But a total of 427 fishermen are still held in North Korea.[29]
Five South Korean high school students[30] disappeared in 1977 and 1978. They had been regarded as missing people. But in the late 1990s, through the testimonies of North Korean spies in South Korea, it was discovered that they were working in North Korea as instructors, teaching the basics of South Korean lifestyle to would-be undercover Northern operatives. It has been known that among them was the husband of Japanese abductee Yokota Megumi, Kim Young-nam.[31]
On June 5, 1970, North Korean patrol boats seized a South Korean broadcast vessel with 20 crew on board off the west coast near the military demarcation line. The vessel was standing guard for South Korean fishing boats.[32]
See main article: Korean Air Lines YS-11. In December 1969, North Korean agents hijacked a South Korean airliner YS-11 to Wonsan en route from Kangnung to Seoul with 51 persons aboard; in February 1970, 39 of the crew and passengers were released. The remaining 11 were still detained in North Korea.[33] Eventually, two stewardesses became announcers of the North Korean propaganda broadcasts that target South Korean audiences.[34]
See also: North Korean abductions of Japanese citizens. In February 1978, South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee and her film director husband Shin Sang-ok were kidnapped in Hong Kong and taken to Pyongyang. They were abducted on the orders of Kim Jong Il, the son of North Korean President Kim Il Sung, who wanted to use them to improve the North Korean film industry. Shin attempted to escape and spent five years in a re-education camp, before being reunited with his wife. While living in North Korea, Shin made the monster movie Pulgasari. In April 1984, South Korean government officials stated that the kidnappees were working in North Korea producing propaganda films that glorified Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il. The couple escaped to the United States in 1986 while on a filming assignment in Vienna.
In the 1990s most abductions of this sort took place in China, and their victims were political activists, missionaries, and real or suspected South Korean spies. All these abductions occurred in the Chinese North-East, near the borders of North Korea.
North Korean abductions have not been limited to northeast Asia and many documented abductees have been kidnapped while abroad, making the issue of serious concern to the international community.