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BEIJING - This is the question that many Koreans may have asked themselves after seeing the report that Jeon Yong-il, a 72-year-old South Korean prisoner of war who was taken to the North during the Korean War and escaped to China last June, was in danger of being expatriated to the North due to a mistake by the South Korean Defense Ministry. The case clearly shows that the government¡¯s indifference and insincerity on war prisoners has gone too far.
Kwon Young-joon, the director of personnel and welfare at the Ministry of Defense (MOD), said in a press briefing Friday, ¡°At the request on Sept. 24 from the Korean Embassy in China to check if Jeon was a war prisoner, we checked the list of 500 war prisoners, but we couldn¡¯t find his name on it, so we notified the embassy of the result on Sept. 26.¡± Since then, the ministry has done nothing about Jeon. Yet after the Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeated the request on Nov. 18, MOD found Jeon¡¯s name on a list of war dead.
Given that all war prisoners repatriated to the South so far have been on the list of war dead, many people are saying that Jeon would not be in such a dangerous situation if the government had paid more attention to his case.
¡°We admit that the responsibility lies with our ministry, and we are now carrying out an inspection of those involved,¡± Kwon said.
As of the end of last month, the officially confirmed number of South Korean war prisoners is 1,186, of which 500 are believed to be still alive. After the cease-fire, 507 prisoners were found dead in North Korea, 179 remain unaccounted for and 32 defected to the South between 1994 and September 2003.
Meanwhile, the Korean Embassy in China said Friday that it was waiting for an official response from the Chinese authorities about Jeon¡¯s whereabouts. Unofficially, however, they reportedly confirmed that Jeon had already been transferred to Tumen, a city near the border with North Korea.
¡°We are negotiating with Chinese authorities in a very positive mood,¡± a Korean official said. ¡°It is only a matter of time before Jeon comes to South Korea.¡±
Jeon joined the army in June 1951 during the Korean War, and was captured in a battle in Gimhwa, Gangwon Province, in July 1953. According to a source who aided Jeon¡¯s escape from North Korea, Jeon came to China last June and sought refuge at the Korean Embassy in Beijing on Sept. 15, only to be rejected, and was arrested by Chinese security agents on Sept. 17.
In relation, the Korean Veterans Association issued a statement Friday, reading, ¡°Jeon was put in danger of being sent back to North Korea due to the government¡¯s carelessness. The government should do its best to rescue Jeon and his wife, and repatriate all remaining war prisoners and those abducted to North Korea.¡±
(Yoo Yong-won, kysu@chosun.com ) and (Yeo Shi-dong, sdyeo@chosun.com )
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