Re: NK Defector Returns with POW Father's Ashes

Date: February 19, 2004

"Seoul to Bring Back NK Defector With Dad's Ashes

By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter

A North Korean defector in China will likely come to Seoul as early as next week with the remains of her father, who is believed to be a former South Korean prisoner of war (POW), according to sources on Wednesday.

``She is at a safe place under our (government's) custody,"a reliable diplomatic source here said. ``I think it would be somewhat difficult to bring them within the week."

The 48-year-old woman, known only by her family name Paek, was able to leave the North in April 2002, as her father, who died in 1997 at 69, requested in his will that he be buried in his homeland in South Korea.

Several former South Korean POWs have come back home, fleeing the Stalinist North since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, but this is the first time someone will return at the request of a will.

The government authorities will likely conduct a DNA test to confirm whether the late Paek was a war prisoner.

In the meantime, the Seoul government is also understood to be exerting diplomatic efforts to attain another ex-prisoner of the Korean War, who is currently the custody of Chinese authorities.

``We are in contact with Chinese officials to bring home the former prisoner of war, who is in the custody of Chinese security authorities," a government official said.

If he comes to Seoul, he would be the 36th recorded person to return since the end of the Korean War.

The war prisoner, a 72-year-old man, is in a similar situation, which the same-aged Chon Yong-il experienced in China before returning home last Christmas.

Chon, who was caught by the North Korean army in the final stage of the Korean War, stepped on his homeland in about half a century.

Most defectors come to the South via China, which shares a long land border with the communist North.

Practically the only ally of the North, China is obliged by a treaty with Pyongyang to send back fugitives to North Korea but has allowed those involved in high-profile cases to head for South Korea, caving to pressures from the international community. China, however, recognizes North Koreans only as economic migrants, not refugees.

About 42,000 South Korean soldiers were taken captive by North Korea during the war, according to the South's tabulation.

The Defense Ministry estimates 1,186 South Korean POWs live in the North, with 507 of them now believed to have died and 179 classified as missing in action. The North has flatly denied their existence.

The Korean War ended in a ceasefire, not in a peace treaty, leaving the two Koreas technically in a state of war.

jinryu@koreatimes.co.kr
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