|
The family of a former South Korean prisoner of war has at last been reunited after five separate efforts to escape North Korea. On Friday, the youngest daughter of 75-year-old Lee Ki-chun, Bok-hee, arrived safely at Incheon International Airport together with her son and a nephew, the latest members of her family to make it to the South.
Bok-hee crossed the Tumen River from North Korea into China with her son after leaving her home in Chungjin, North Hamgyeong Province in mid-January. Arriving in Yanji, China, she met up with her nephew Goh, who had fled North Korea in December. They managed to seek asylum at the South Korean Consulate in Shenyang. After a 15-day investigation by Chinese authorities, all of them safely arrived in the South, ending a 17-month struggle for altogether seven members of the family to follow Lee.
Lee was captured by the Chinese Army during the Korean War and taken to North Korea.
It was not until August 2004 that he sneaked on a train bound for the border town of Hoeryeong with his North Korean wife Kim Sang-ok (69) to cross the Tumen River there. However, they were caught by a railway guard and sent back to Cheongjin. In September, Lee made a second attempt, this time alone, but was arrested by border guards near the Tumen River. Lee was able to bribe them to let him go, and finally arrived in his home country in November after 54 years of living in the North.
That same month, his wife also crossed the Tumen River into China with the help of a broker. However, the traffickers kept putting off her departure and asking for more money. She finally arrived in the South last May.
Then in September, their daughter Bok-sil (36) and son-in-law Goh Young-nam (39) also safely arrived in the South but had to leave their three-year-old son in North Korea. The child, too, was eventually taken to Yanji by a people smuggler, where he was later picked up by Bok-hee.
Lee was in hospital in Busan when he heard that his youngest daughter and grandsons were to arrive. ¡°If I die right now, I¡¯d die happy,¡± he said. ¡°I feel like I¡¯m in a dream, overcoming all these difficulties, risking my life and finally living with my children again. If my wife was alive today, she¡¯d be so happy.¡± But she is not. After all the hardship she survived getting to South Korea, Kim Sang-ok was killed in a traffic accident in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province that also injured Lee and left him hospitalized.
Lee prefers to consider the good fortune that brought the rest of his family together once again. He says he hopes to live with his granddaughters and grandsons.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
|
