Oct. 9, 2004
Where is Matt Maupin – Alive or Dead, we need to bring him home.
41 and Counting - That’s the number of South Korean POWs to escape North Korea.- On October 4th Agence France-Presse reported on the 41st escape of a South Korean soldier, since the agreement to end armed hostilities was signed in 1953. According to the article:
“A 76-year-old South Korean former soldier has escaped from North Korea after being held for more than half a century as a prisoner of war, the Yonhap news agency reported Sunday. The former soldier, known only by his family name Lee, arrived at a South Korean diplomatic office in China on Friday after escaping from the North, Yonhap said, citing the Families of the Abducted and Detained in North Korea, an association for people abducted by Pyongyang.....
“Lee was captured by North Korean troops in 1951 during the 1950-53 Korean War. He worked down mines for 20 years in the North before moving to work at a cultural center in Sariwon city, capital of North Hwanghae province...... After 53 years in the North, Lee started his bid for freedom by leaving the city in August and successfully crossing the border to China early last month, Yonghap said.”
538 More to Go — The South Korean news agency Yonhap reports “Up to 538 South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) from the 1950-53 Korean War are still living in North Korea, an opposition lawmaker said Sunday [3 October]. Rep Jun Yeo-ok of the major opposition Grand National Party (GNP) said 1,365 South Korean POWs are still unaccounted for, citing statistics from the ministries of national unification, defense and other government agencies.”
“"Out of the total, 538 are still presumed to be alive in the North, 636 are presumed dead and 191 missing," Jun said. Since the defection of Cho Chang-ho to South Korea in 1994, 41 former South Korean POWs came to the South, she said. There have been 3,790 South Koreans taken to the North since 1953, the lawmaker said.”
We’ll Ask The Question Again – What about American POWs? North Korea held back South Korean POWs. Why wouldn’t they hold back American POWs? South Korean POWs survived the brutal captivity of the North. Why not American POWs? |
