Request for Inquiry Into Identity of National Army Captive Who Escaped from North Korea

It was revealed on November 21 that negligence on the part of the Ministry of National Defense put former national army captive Jeon Yong-il (72) and his wife Choi Eun-hi (68), who escaped from North Korea in June, at risk of being sent to North Korea by Chinese public peace authorities who recently arrested them.

“We were asked to confirm Jeon’s name on the list of national army captives by the Korean Embassy at Beijing in September and looked for his name on the list of 500 captives who had survived, but we reported that we couldn’t find his name on the list,” said Kwon Young-jun, rear admiral and chief of the personnel welfare department, in the press interview that day. He added that they were looking into identifying the person in charge who neglected the task of checking the fallen soldiers list at that time.

In particular, the department concerned did not report this result to the Minister and vice Minister, which suggested careless treatment of the problem of national army captives.

The Ministry of National Defense received a request from the military office in Beijing on September 24 to determine whether or not Jeon was a national army captive on the basis of his personal record and the military unit he belonged to, but it checked only the captives list and reported two days later that he was not on the list.

It was revealed, however, that the Ministry of National Defense finally clarified his inclusion on the fallen soldiers list when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade requested on November 18 that the list be re-examined. Regarding this matter, the Ministry of National Defense explained, “It was somewhat difficult to prove his identity because the statement the military office sent didn’t contain Jeon’s service number.”

However, they could easily have confirmed his identity had they checked the fallen soldiers list in September, because the computerized database containing the national army captives list and fallen soldiers list was readily available.

In particular, it was revealed that the Ministry of National Defense had excluded the possibility that Jeon was still alive after a hearing from a remote relative of his that he had died.

Kwon said, “The Ministry of National Defense should have thoroughly checked the national army captives list and other relevant documents, and is responsible for this negligence.”

It was reported that Jeon was arrested by the public peace authorities in Hangzou, Zhejiang and sent to an asylum for North Korean escapees in Tumen, located adjacent to North Korea.

According to the Ministry of National Defense, of the 1,186 national army captives detained in North Korea during the Korean War whose existence and identities were confirmed, 500 remain alive.

Meanwhile, the Korean Veterans Association urged in a statement on the same day that “the government should not only rescue Jeon and his wife using all diplomatic means possible, but also make efforts to secure the return of national army captives and abductees from North Korea.”

Sang-Ho Yun ysh1005@donga.com