According to statistics, since 1994, a total of 81 South Korean prisoners of war held during the Korean War have returned to their hometowns in South Korea by various means, among which the highest military rank is Lieutenant Jang Sun-sang, who returned to China in August 2005.
Lieutenant Zhang Shansheng
Jang Sun-sang (장선생), formerly known as Jang In-tong (장인동), was born in 1926 in Yongtan-ri, Chungju City, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea. In 1958, the Chungju City Council felt that the name "Chicken Foot Mountain" was unlucky because the chicken's feet symbolized division, so it was renamed "Chicken Foot Mountain" at the request of the local villagers.
Jang Sun-sang's father's name is Jang Tian-bok and his mother's name is Park Man-sil, and his father worked in a brewery in Gangneung City during the Japanese occupation, for which he also took the whole family over, but he also contracted a bad habit of alcoholism in the brewery. After the recovery of the peninsula, Zhang Tianfu began to do dry goods business, wholesale dried fish from Zhuwenjin to sell in Gangneung, but because of alcoholism, business was often delayed. In order to raise the five children, Park Manshi had to carry a basket on his head every day and go to the countryside to sell perilla oil, for which he suffered a lot. Later, whenever he talked about his mother's ordeal during this time, Zhang Shansheng was always silent.
Zhang Shansheng has two younger brothers and two younger sisters, named Shanguang, Chunzhi, Nanyi, and Chunai, until more than 50 years after being captured, he still remembers the scene of taking his younger brothers and sisters to play on Qixing Mountain in Wangshan Face, Gangneung City, and he even remembers that his first love was called "Kwon Xianzi", it can be imagined that although the material conditions of his youth in Gangneung were difficult, it may be the happiest time in Zhang Shansheng's life. Because he was the eldest son, his parents threw all the education funds on him and sent him to study at the "Sanle Academy", a private primary school with a high fee in Gangneung City at that time.
The Iron Triangle where Zhang Shansheng was captured
Zhang Shansheng has been lively and active since he was a child, good at jumping, and was nicknamed "Spanish Hound" by his classmates, and Park Manshi also liked this eldest son the most, after Zhang Shansheng was captured and disappeared, he often said to his daughters-in-law: "He has been very smart since he was a child, and he studied very well, if he is still alive, he will definitely become the pillar of this family." Because Zhang Shansheng had excellent grades since he was a child, his parents gritted their teeth and sent him to the expensive Seoul Deokshou Commercial School (now Deokshou Information Technology High School) despite the poor economic conditions of his family.
On June 25, 1950, Jang Sun-sheng, who was in the fifth grade at Deoksu Commercial School, caught up with the outbreak of the Korean War and was forcibly conscripted into the army by the South Korean army, due to his relatively high education, he was sent to the Gwangju Infantry School for training as a reserve officer, and after graduation, he was awarded the rank of second lieutenant in the army, and was assigned to the 72nd Brigade of the 11th Field Artillery Wing of the 3rd Division of the South Korean Army as a squad leader, with the military number 123990, and was later transferred to the 17th Infantry Wing and promoted to lieutenant.
On July 15, 1953, 12 days before the ceasefire of the Korean War, Jang Sun-sang, who was in the "Iron Triangle" area of Jinhua, was sent to confirm the effectiveness of U.S. and South Korean artillery strikes and reconnoiter the artillery positions of the Chinese and North Korean coalition forces, which was one of the most intense front-line battles in the late war. On the way to retreat, Zhang Shansheng and his group got lost, and after a whole day of starvation, they planned to try to return to their positions again in the evening, but they were ambushed by a certain unit of the Volunteer Army on the way. In the fierce battle, Zhang Shansheng was hit by shrapnel in the tibia of his right leg and caused a penetrating wound, and when he thought that capture was inevitable, he quickly tore up all the ranks, insignia, and name tags on his uniform.
Fifty years later, Zhang Shansheng's right leg is still buried
Therefore, after becoming a prisoner of the volunteers, Jang Sun-sang lied that he was a sergeant, but fortunately, the three South Korean artillerymen and 30 infantry soldiers who were captured with him did not betray him, so he lived in North Korea under such a false identity for more than 50 years. On July 24, 1953, three days before the ceasefire, news of Jang Sun-sung's disappearance was brought to his family in Chungju, and it is said that his mother fell to her knees in grief when she heard the news, and wept bitterly: "If the fighting had ceased earlier, I would not have lost my eldest son." ”
After being wounded and captured, Jang was taken to the prisoner of war hospital in the Gangdong prisoner of war camp in South Pyongan Province for treatment, and said goodbye to his 33 comrades, whom he never saw again. Due to the severity of his leg injury, Zhang Shansheng underwent a total of four surgeries in the prisoner of war hospital, so he also missed the day of the transfer of prisoners of war. Later, as a prisoner of war, Jang was transported by train to the Cheongdi Coal Mine in North Hamgyong Province along with other prisoners of war, where he was fortunate to be assigned to work as an excavator repair because he still had some shrapnel fragments in his legs that could not be removed.
In 1957, when Zhang Shansheng was 31 years old, he was introduced by the secretary of the coal mine and met a lady who was 11 years younger than himself from Xionggi County, North Hamgyong Province. The two later raised five sons and a daughter, but Jang Sun-sang's status as a prisoner of war meant that his children were confined to working on farms in North Hamgyong Province as adults.
Zhang Shansheng
After working until the age of 50, Jang Sun-sang was also transferred to Guwusan Farm in Funyong-gun, North Hamgyong Province as a welder, while his wife followed him to do some small carpentry on the farm. In 1986, Zhang Shansheng officially went through the retirement procedures at the age of 60, and at this time his children had already started a family independently. It can be seen that Zhang Shansheng and his wife still have a deep relationship, even after going to South Korea alone, whenever he is asked about his wife's situation, he always says with a crying voice: "We have to bring her back as soon as possible...... In this regard, the relevant escort can only lie to him and say: "I will take your whole family in three days, please rest assured that ......" This impossible lie is too much, and Zhang Shansheng gradually becomes numb.
The reason for Jang Sunsheng's decision to return to South Korea was that in 2000 he was partially paralyzed by a stroke, losing sensation in both his left hand and left foot, and although he was able to move his right half of his body, he was in poor condition due to malnutrition. Due to the severe shortage of medicines in North Korea, Jang Sun-sang's eldest son decided to send his father back to South Korea in order to allow him to receive the necessary treatment. In February 2002, the eldest son carried Zhang Shansheng on his back and waded into Northeast China and found a family engaged in related business, and the other party said with a package ticket: "I will send him to South Korea." There, Zhang Shansheng even spoke on the phone for the first time with his younger brother Zhang Shanguang, who had been separated for 50 years.
Zhang Shanguang is seven years younger than his brother Zhang Shansheng, because he is old, he has not many memories of playing with his brother when he was a child, but he vaguely remembers the scene of the two catching abalone together on Anmu Beach in Gangneung City. When he heard that his brother had disappeared, he thought he had been killed, when he heard that his brother was missing, at the age of 20, who was serving in the South Korean Army Headquarters in Daegu. So when he first received a call from his brother fifty years later, he couldn't believe his ears.
Abducted and the Secretary General of the Union of North Korean Defectors, Gu Hee-sung
The family that housed Jang Sun-sang was actually a professional "snakehead", and he said to Jang Sun-gwang on the phone: "Do you want to see your brother? Give me 10 million won and I'll send him over." Seeing that the other party asked for so much money as soon as he opened his mouth, Zhang Shanguang was suspicious of this, so he went to consult the South Korean Ministry of Unification, and the reply was: "Be careful, the other party may be a fraud." Seeing that his younger brother couldn't send money over for a long time, Zhang Shansheng couldn't help but feel a little sad, he found an opportunity to sneak out, ran to the local police station and confessed his identity, thinking that he could be sent to South Korea by the police station, and he was too naïve at the scene.
After being held at the police station for a month, Zhang Shansheng was repatriated to North Korea by the relevant authorities, and after returning to prison, he spent another month in prison. In June 2005, he crossed the Douman River with his father on his back, this time he found the secret branch of the Abducted and North Korean Defectors Alliance, a non-governmental spy organization funded by the South Korean government, in northeast China, who settled Zhang Shansheng in a private house on the outskirts of Yanji and sent a young Chinese man surnamed Li to protect him.
When they met for the first time, Li Qingqing made boiled hairtail fish for Zhang Shansheng as a hospitality, and the latter couldn't help but shed tears when eating this dish, saying: "This is the first time I have eaten hairtail fish in 50 years, which reminds me of the taste of eating hairtail pancakes made by my mother in Gangneung when I was a child...... "However, due to his half-body failure, it is very troublesome to take care of, and Li Qingqing couldn't help but complain in an interview with a reporter from "Chosun Ilbo": "Hurry up and take this old thing to South Korea, it's too troublesome to take care of him." After all, for these spies, helping the detained South Korean prisoners of war escape is nothing more than a troublesome task.
Zhang Shansheng is writing a petition
Later, when drinking and chatting alone with a reporter from the Chosun Ilbo, Lee added: "I know that many of the Korean prisoners of war who have been taken are now some dying people, and most of them live in North Hamgyong Province...... To tell you the truth, I also hate South Korea, and now I am only doing this with money, and if you Koreans can't take away all the families of the detained prisoners of war who remain in North Korea, won't it create a new problem of separated families? What are you going to do with these dying people when they go back? I hope you will also think about this issue......
On June 15, 2005, on the eve of his return to China, Zhang Shansheng was instructed to write a so-called "petition" for propaganda purposes, which read: "Although I am old and frail and was captured in a battle to defend my homeland and country, I am an active duty officer, so I have returned to my motherland...... For my wife and children, I want them to live a free and glorious life in their homeland, even though I was once a prisoner of war and have lived an inhuman life. With this petition, I would like to appeal to the President of the mainland, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, and the relevant departments of China to return me safely to the motherland as soon as possible......"
After learning that his half-paralyzed brother was about to return to China, Zhang Shanguang was speechless for a while, and finally he sighed and said, "We must bring him over as soon as possible, so that it will not be too late." Obviously, the problem of his brother's pension in the second half of his life can only be solved by his family, in contrast, Zhang Shanguang's 66-year-old wife Jin Qiaoxi is much smarter, she said: "I went to the cathedral and prayed that my brother can return to China safely." I'm sure he'll come back healthy. Zhang Shanguang then said: "When my brother comes back, it is time to bring my sister-in-law back...... I will bring her back as soon as possible and let them spend the last days of their lives together......" Although this idea sounds very good, it is obvious that Zhang Shanguang and his wife will not be able to realize it at all.
Zhang Shanguang, Kim Qiaoxi and his wife
After the overwhelming publicity in August-September 2005, Zhang Shansheng disappeared from the South Korean media reports after returning to South Korea, and this disappearance was naturally deserved, because after being swept away by his younger brother Zhang Shanguang and his wife, all the veterans and government grants were swept away, Zhang Shansheng was driven to a dilapidated nursing home with very low fees, and no one cared about how the half-dead veteran was doing, and within a few years, he died in a poor living environment.