Posted October. 07, 2013 08:28,
The remains of a South Korean solider, who fought for the nation, have returned 60 years after the end of the Korean War. The remains of Sohn Dong-shik (born in 1925), who was taken to North Korea as a prisoner of war during the Korean War and died there, arrived in the South via China on Saturday. It is the first time that the entire remains of a South Korean POW have been shipped from the North Korean territory by private citizens and returned to the South.
The South Korean Defense Ministry received Sohns return to the motherland through treatment corresponding to that for a returning POW. A box containing Sohns remains, which were covered with the South Korean national flag Taegeukgi, was directly taken to the defense ministrys remains excavation and forensic team within the Seoul National Cemetery. With requiem music playing, the box of remains was placed at the hall honoring the soul of fallen war heroes, as the officials from the cemetery and the Defense Ministry saluted. The event ended with incense burning and firing of volley by the military brass band.
It is also the first time that a ceremony for receiving remains of a South Korean POW who died in the North has taken place at the Seoul National Cemetery. Sohn Dong-shiks ancestral tablet has been kept at the Daejeon National Cemetery because he was classified in 1998 as a missing person, said a source at the Seoul National Cemetery. If DNA test with the repatriated remains and bereaved family in the South confirms that the remains are Sohns, the remains will be buried at the Daejeon National Cemetery.
The repatriation of Sohns remains has been possible due to painstaking efforts by his daughter Myeong-hwa (51, chairperson of the association for North Korean defectors welfare). Sohn participated in the war as sergeant of the 9th Division of the South Korean Army, and was captured alive by the North Korean army three months before the Armistice (July 27, 1953). Sohn, who had to struggle with hard labor at underground mines due to his status as a South Korean POW, and developed lung cancer, and told his daughter that his hometown was Gimhae, South Gyeongsang Province in the South, right before his death in 1984. He left his will full of regret, saying, Even if alone, you should go there without fail. (Later on) please bury my remains in my hometown as well. It was his wish of lifetime to leave the North and return to his motherland even posthumously.
Myeong-hwa, who defected the North some 20 years later, did everything she can to bring her fathers remains to the South. After all, his relatives living in the North collected Sohns remains from his tomb and put them in a sack, handed it over to a Chinese broker at North Korean border with China last month. With support from the incorporation Mulmangcho (Forget-me-not), which runs the committee for repatriation of South Korean POWs, she was able to bring her fathers remains to the South. I feel overflowing joy because I have kept my promise at last.