Twice Abducted
MOUNT KUMGANG, North Korea “• A South Korean fisherman abducted to North Korea was reunited with his mother after nearly two decades of life in the communist country. The tearful meeting was a part of the two Koreas’ separated family reunions at the mountain resort here.
Kim Jong-sim, 74, told her first son of his father’s death five years ago as she burst into tears. Jeong Il-nam, 50, unsuccessfully tried to hold back his tears. His North Korean wife tried to calm her mother-in-law.
The scene, however surreal, was a reflection of the complicated issues in North-South Korea relations since the turn of the century when Seoul began serious efforts to bring a thaw to relations between the two Koreas. Tokyo has been making strenuous efforts to rescue its own citizens kidnapped to North Korea, and Seoul’s reluctance to risk North Korean ire by doing the same has triggered criticism in the South.
Mr. Jeong was one of the 12 crewmen aboard the Dongjin, which was seized by a North Korean patrol boat on Jan. 15, 1987. The North’s Red Cross said a week after the abduction that it would return the crew to the South, but the promise was never kept. In 1998, North Korea announced that Dongjin was a spy ship and said the crew had “voluntarily” asked to stay in the North. The families of the 12 fishermen organized a lobby in 2000 and filed a suit against the government last year.
Mr. Jeong, who met his mother with a North Korean official beside them, was the 11th South Korean abductee allowed by the North to attend a reunion, and the fourth Dongjin crew member to do so.
At yesterday’s reunion, 99 South Koreans were allowed to see 200 North Korean family members.
. . . and at the end of the day they were abducted all over again, and their government didn’t raise a peep. What distinguishes the abductees from any other ordinary South Korean citizens, including those who want to enrich and appease the kidnappers without condition? The abductees know the truth about this regime. Picture here.