January 22, 2001, Chosun Ilbo
Analysis of 7,034 Korean War Abductee Reports
30% are Social Leaders Including Public Servants, Lawyers, Politicians

Democratic Party lawmaker Kim Song Ho, a member of the National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs and Unification Committee, has released materials that show the number of South Koreans who were abducted by North Korea during the Korean War.

Kim released two kinds of records. The first kind were reports collected from families of abductees by the South Korean Red Cross during a two month period from June to August 1956. The two month reporting process collected a total of 7034 cases of abductions. The South Korean Red Cross has kept a copy of these reports in a document entitled “List of Registered Displaced Persons.”

The second type of records is a list of 337 names that were received from the North Korean Red Cross. After the South Korean Red Cross collected abductee reports, it sent them through the International Red Cross to North Korea with a request to confirm the abductees’ whereabouts. While it is difficult to say that the level of reportage from abductee families was complete considering the reports occurred right after the Korean War, the materials provide a broad picture of how many abductees there were at the time.

Kim says that of the 7034 people who were reported, 2113 people, or 30%, were leading members of South Korean society at the time, including politicians, public servants, judges and prosecutors, lawyers, artists, journalists, religious leaders and educators.

Well-known figures include Lee Gwang Su, a well-known writer from the Japanese occupation period, An Jae Hong, an independence fighter and National Assemblyman, Jo So Ang, Hyung San Yoon, the first president of Korea University, and Son Jin Tae, an historian. The list also revealed that An Jae Hong, Jo So Ang, and six other abducted National Assemblymen were involved in a “North Korean Committee for Peace and Unification.”

The most common occupation among the abductees in the reports was public servant at 19.3% (1359 people), followed by farmer at 14.3% (1005 people). Businessmen were a total of 13.7% (966), company employees 10.5% (737), students 9.6% (677), educators 5.1% (355), engineers 4.7% (330), medical workers 2.83% (199), lawyers 1.5% (106), and politicians 1.2% (85). A total of 93.4% or 6575 of the abductees were abducted from Seoul, northern Gyeonggi province and Gangwon province. It is also possible to surmise that the South Korean government’s blowing up of the Han River Bridge led to the abduction of many because it prevented large numbers of people from escaping southwards.

The list of 337 abductees from North Korea details the residence and place of employment of the abductees, and it appears that most of them continued the work they had done in South Korea in the North. Observers say that this shows that North Korea abducted South Korean civilians in order to solve post-war labor shortages.