According to Yonhap News Agency, on November 2, 2023, Kim Sung-tae, a former Korean War prisoner of war of the South Korean Army, died at home at the age of 92, and after his death, there are only 10 returning prisoners of war still alive in South Korea.
Kim Sung-tae spoke at the event
Kim Sung-tae (김성태), born in 1931 in Pocheon, Gyeonggi-do, enlisted in the army at the age of 17 and was captured by the KPA on the third day after the outbreak of the Korean War. In order to return to his hometown as soon as possible, Kim Sung-tae was forced to become a "liberation fighter", and as a result, he was assigned to raise horses in the rear, and later he volunteered to join the special forces preparing to fight guerrillas in the south, but on the eve of the end of the war, he was reported by his comrades-in-arms who saw his intentions, and during his imprisonment, he was sentenced to 13 years in prison by a military court for attempting to escape, and was not released until 1966.
After Kim Sung-tae was released from prison, he was assigned to work in the coal mine in Anseong-gun, North Hamgyong Province, and married a woman with two sons. In 1978, Kim Sung-tae's wife died early, and in the early 90s, the second son and his wife were unfortunately beaten to death by robbers with iron rods, coupled with the deteriorating domestic economic situation in North Korea, so that in 2001, Kim Sung-tae and his eldest son decided to secretly go to Northeast China and eventually return to South Korea. In 2022, South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol also invited Kim Sung-tae to attend his inauguration, but only a year and a half later, the old man died.
Since the signing of the armistice agreement on July 27, 1953, the United States and the South Korean army and the Chinese and North Korean allied forces have carried out prisoner exchange activities, of which a total of 8,343 South Korean prisoners of war were handed back by the North Korean side, but according to the statistics of the United States and South Korea military command, a total of more than 82,000 South Korean soldiers are missing during the war, and most of them should be detained by the North Korean side. The North Korean side responded that most of them had been recruited by the KPA as "liberation fighters," but South Korea has insisted that at least 10,000 of them (more than 50,000 among civilians and even 100,000 by some estimates) remain imprisoned until the end of the war.
In 2020, prisoner of war Han Jae-bok and others initiated a lawsuit
During the period of the South Korean military junta and the rule of the leftists, the South Korean government was silent on the issue of prisoners of war until 2010, when Lee Myung-bak was in power, and according to the intelligence of the returned prisoners of war who have been held one after another, and the statistics of the United Nations human rights organization, it is estimated that as of December 2010, there are still more than 560 South Korean prisoners of war in North Korea, and by 2023, with most of the prisoners of war deceased, this number is estimated to have dropped to more than 100.
In 2022, after South Korean prosecutor Yoon Suk-yeol was elected president, he also began to make a fuss about the issue of prisoners of war, he first invited Yoo Young-bok (유영복), Kim Sung-tae, and Lee Kyu-il (이규일) to attend his inauguration ceremony, and then said in a joint statement issued after meeting with US President Joe Biden that he would work with Americans to solve the issue of prisoners of war, which is also the first time that this issue has been written into the joint statement of previous US and South Korean presidents. However, considering that there are very few prisoners of war still alive at this time, President Yoon's statement can be described as a speculative trade that is sure to make a profit.
To this end, Kim Yong-ho, the newly appointed minister of unification of the Republic of Korea, has set up a so-called "abductee countermeasures team" under his direct leadership to deal with the issue of detained ROK prisoners of war, abductees, and detainees. At his inauguration ceremony, Kim Young-ho said: "...... The issue of the detention of prisoners of war is not only a humanitarian issue caused by the division, but also a human rights issue imposed on our people by the other side...... We will fulfill our fundamental national responsibility to solve this problem by finding creative solutions to this problem......"
In 2023, South Korean Deputy Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul incense the portrait of prisoner of war Han Byung-so
According to statistics, since the return of Second Lieutenant Cho Chang-ho (조창호), a former ROK prisoner of war, to South Korea in 1994, 81 former ROK prisoners of war have returned to their hometowns on their own without the help of the South Korean government. They were disappointed to learn that in 2000 the government of Kim Dae-jung of South Korea had handed over to the DPRK 63 long-held prisoners (including KPA officers, guerrillas and agents) without mentioning the issue of prisoners of war. For this reason, they have long filed lawsuits against the South Korean government over the restoration and compensation of their own groups, and it is clear that time is running out for these elderly people in their last years. The author collects Korean news reports and introduces a few of them who have passed away.
Han Byung-so (한병수), who died on October 9, 2023, was the penultimate living former ROK prisoner of war, born in 1931, was drafted into the army in December 1951 by the 3rd Brigade of the 21st Wing of the 8th Division of the ROK Army, and was captured by the Sino-Korean coalition forces in a battle on the eve of the signing of the armistice agreement in June 1953. After the war, Han Byung-so was detained in Dancheon, South Hamgyong Province, North Korea, where he worked as a manual laborer for a long time. In June 2002, with the help of relevant people, Han Byung-so finally left North Korea and returned to South Korea. After Han Byung-so's death, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Beom-chul came to the funeral and laid a wreath.
Han Jae-bok (한재복), who died on February 8, 2023, was the 14th living former ROK prisoner of war, who was recruited into the KPA in April 1951 by a reconnaissance squad directly under the 5th Wing of the 7th Division of the ROK Army in Gube County, North Jeolla Province in 1934, and was captured by the KPA eight months later in the Battle of Hoyyang-gun, Gangwon Province. In August 2001, after being detained and working as a coal miner for half a century, Han Jae-bok finally returned to North Korea after many setbacks, and after his return, he initiated a lawsuit against the North Korean government along with another detained prisoner of war, Roh Se-hong, and in 2020 was awarded a fine of 21 million won in compensation (although it never arrived).
The back of 90-year-old Lu Shihong, who is still picking up garbage
Born in 1929, Roh Se-hong (노사홍) was the 14th prisoner of war to return to South Korea since 1994, and was captured on July 14, 1953 as a soldier of the 2nd Squadron of the 1st Brigade of the Capital Division of the ROK Army. After being detained in North Korea, Roh also married a local woman and gave birth to six children, but he eventually decided to return to South Korea after the death of four children due to illness. Since Lu Shihong had four children in the south before the war, it is naturally not a problem for him to provide for the elderly now, but despite this, because most of the compensation and pensions paid by the South Korean government have been transferred to the snakehead, the 90-year-old Lu Shihong still has to often go out to pick up garbage and sell it for money to subsidize the family.
Lieutenant Jang Sun-sang (장선생), the highest-ranking of the 81 returned POWs, was born in 1926 in Yongdam-dong, Chungju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do, to two younger brothers and two younger sisters. After the outbreak of the Korean War on June 25, 1950, Jang Sun-sung, who was in the fifth grade at Deoksu Commercial School in Seoul, entered the Gwangju Infantry School of the ROK Army for training, 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 ROK Army as a squad leader, and was later promoted to lieutenant. On July 14, 1953, Jang Sun-sang was captured by the Volunteer Army while fighting in the Iron Triangle area of Gangwon Province.
Zhang Shansheng
After the end of the war, Jang Sun-sang, who missed the prisoner exchange because of surgery for a leg injury, naturally became a prisoner of war, and he was taken to the Cheongdi Coal Mine in North Hamgyong Province to become a mechanical repairman, where he married and had children. In June 2005, in order to allow Zhang Shansheng, who was already partially paralyzed, to receive better treatment, his eldest son sent him to Northeast China, where he was rescued by a South Korean non-governmental organization and was able to return to South Korea. After returning to China, Zhang Shansheng was sent to a dilapidated nursing home for the elderly by his younger brother's family, where he soon died.
Born in 1926, Jang Moo-hwan (장무환), who once joined the People's Army after the outbreak of the war, was drafted into the 3rd Division of the ROK Army at the age of 26, and was captured on July 20, 1953, and was transferred to North Hamgyong Province after the war to arrange coal mining. In 1998, Jang ventured into northeastern China and received a phone call from the South Korean embassy, which refused to help him return to South Korea or contact the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but was able to return to South Korea after paying $10,000 (about 11.29 million won) to the smugglers. After Zhang Wuhuan returned to China, the "White Bone Unit" of the 3rd Division of his old unit also arranged a special ceremony for him to return to the team.
Jang Moo-hwan who put on the uniform of the South Korean army again
Born in 1932, Heo Jae-seok joined the Korean Army's Capital Division in 1952 and was captured by volunteers on July 5, 1953 in the Gimhwa Iron Triangle area (again this place), and after the war, he was transferred to work at the Cheongdi Coal Mine in North Hamgyong Province. Although he became a small leader and married a wife because of his hard work, due to the deterioration of the economic situation in North Korea in the 90s, Heo Jae-seok secretly entered Northeast China in 2000 and returned to South Korea with the help of his younger brother. After returning to South Korea, Heo Jae-seok lived in a small mountain village with a woman who was a teenager his junior, Ms. Lee, and finally passed away on November 2, 2021.
In addition to these Korean prisoners of war who have returned to China, some children of Korean prisoners of war who have passed away have also found an opportunity to return to South Korea, and they have formed a non-governmental organization called the Association of Families of Prisoners of War (in fact, it has a background of funding from the South Korean government), and has been appealing to the South Korean government to solve this historical problem.
Honmyung Ho MP, Ms Choi so-kyung
For example, Ms. Son Myung-wha (손명화), who has become a local councilor in Seoul, and her father, Son Dong-sik (손동식), a native of Gimhae-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, was held to work in a coal mine in Mosan-gun, North Hamgyong Province, where he died of lung cancer in 1984 after being captured in the Korean War. At the behest of her father, in 2006, Ms. Son finally found an opportunity to return to South Korea and submitted her testimony to the United Nations Working Group on Enforced and Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID), which is one of the reasons why she was elected as a local councillor in South Korea, repeatedly emphasizing the issue of prisoner of war detention as her only job now.
Born in 1964, Ms. Choi so-kyung, like Councilor Sun, was also the daughter of a prisoner of war, and her father, Choi Hak-yeon (최학연), was born in 1928 in Gangjin-gun, Jeollanam-do, captured by the KPA in October 1950, and worked in the coal mines of Huiyeong-gun after the war until his death in 1997. At the behest of her father, Ms. Choi smuggled her to northeastern China in 1999 and worked in a small restaurant for four years before returning to South Korea. Like Congressman Sun, her daily routine is to lead her members to a rally in front of the South Korean Ministry of National Defense building to demand that the issue of prisoners of war be resolved as soon as possible.
A related new book by Li Huimin
Of course, considering that there are still family members stranded in North Korea, in order to protect their families, not all returned prisoners of war and their children are willing to disclose their names to the media, such as South Korean screenwriter Lee Hye-min's new book on interviews with returned prisoners of war published in August 2023 "Nobody Came to You: The Story of 9 Returned Prisoners of War from the Korean War", 4 of the 9 South Korean prisoners of war interviewed did not disclose their personal information. Returning POWs who frequently appear in front of the media may have other personal factors in their choice.