Abductee: Chon Pong-pin
Recorded Date: November 21, 2006


Profile of Abductee

Name: Chon Pong-pin (male)
Date of Birth: September 16, 1908
Place of Birth: Pyongyang
Last Address: 130 Bukahyen-dong Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Date of Abduction: August 7, 1950 (age 42)
Place of Abduction: Home
Occupation: a public security expert member of the National Assembly
Education/Career: Pyongyang High School, Kyung-sung Imperial University/ Governor, Public servant (a local director), First dean of Daegu University
Dependants: Wife, 1 son, 4 daughters
Appearance/Personality: 170cm, handsome/ mild-mannered and sociable


Profile of Witness

Name: 1. Yoo Hui-young (born in 1915), 2. Chon Tae-hui (born in 1942)
Relation: 1. Wife 2. Son
Type of Witnesses: 1. direct witness, 2. indirect witness

Summary of the Abduction


- Chon Pong-pin(male, 42 at the time of abduction) was an intellectual who graduated Pyongyang High School and Kyung-sung Imperial University in Seoul. He was a governor, public servant (a local director), and the first dean of Daegu University.
- At the time of abduction, around August 7th in 1950, he was a public security expert member of the National Assembly, being contributed to establishing Korean legal framework.
- Right after the Korean war broke out, he sought a hideout at his relative’s house because people of North Korea kept coming to his house.
- South Korean government provided a train to the public officials so that they can evacuate from Seoul and he had a chance to avoid the abduction.
- However, he decided to drop by his home to see if his family’s condition and he was captured at home by three agents from the Political Security Bureau on around August 7th, 1950.
- A North Korean prisoner of war confirmed that the abductee was living in a group with other abductees in Gang-gye near the Am-nok River.
- Chon Pong-pin’s wife and daughter visited the prison, (which was originally a national library) but the request for visit was rejected.
- After years, a POW came to see Chon Pong-pin’s family and told that he and other POWs were gathering woods in Gang-gye near the Am-nok River, bumped into abductees living in the prison camp. He told that he had a short talk with Chon Pong-pin.
- Although 60 years have passed, his whereabouts has not been revealed due to the noncooperation of North Korea.
- Chon Pong-pin was mentioned several times in abductee statistics, put together by the South Korean government and the Korea National Red Cross, and in the CIA Information Report, those are listing names of South Koreans captured by North Korea. Based on those documents, Chon Pong-pin was granted legal status of an abductee from the South Korean government.



Details of the Abduction

Q. How was he abducted?

A1.(Son) I was just 9 years old when my father got abducted. It was August 7th 1950, a clear, sunny summer day. When I got up in the morning, our maid was pacing back and forth in the front yard, fuming. I asked her where my mother was, and she said angrily that she didn’t know. Later that morning, I found out what she was angry about. She was severely scolded by my mother for being slow-witted and not letting my father know that people came to capture him. She should have woken him up and helped him run away, while my mother was buying time. But her eyes were not sharp enough to see my mother’s hidden intention. Even though he took precautions, he put his running shoes at his bedside and tore down the fence between our house and the neighbor’s to secure a way out, my father was captured while he was still in bed.

A2. (Wife) My husband took a refuge in a relative’s house in Anam-dong after the Korean War broke out, as people kept coming to our house to take him away. Buildings and houses were being destroyed by bombings everyday and he was worried about us. So he came home one day to see if we were okay. He decided to stay the night and leave the next morning. I woke up the next day with an ominous feeling. I opened the front door to take a peek outside to see if there was anyone watching our house. As I had feared, there were three people running toward our house. Terrified, I closed the door and locked it. A few seconds later, I could hear a pounding on the door. They yelled at me to open the door. I did my best to buy some time for my husband to escape, giving signals to the maid to tell him to run. But eventually they got in and took my husband away.

(Son) I will add some details. My father ran for the second National Assembly in May 10, 1950. He lost. He could have won the election if he ran in Daegu where he had a high profile, but instead he ran in Young-ju. About a month later, the Korean War broke out. When the war broke out, my father called his brother to double-check if we were really at war with the North as his brother was a secretary to the then Minister of National Defense, Shin Seong-mo. His brother said, “Yes. We are at war now. You should flee to south. My family and I will do the same, too.” But President Rhee aired a nation-wide broadcast that the government would stay in Seoul and therefore people should not panic. I clearly remember hearing the broadcast with my father in front of the Capitol building near Gwanghwa-mun.

His brother told him on the phone that there was a train to take high-ranking officials to south and he should take it. As an Assistant Minister-level official, my father was given a train pass that allowed him to go anywhere he wanted without a fee. He listened to his brother and took the train at Yongsan station. But when it stopped at Yeongdeung-po station, he got off. According to what we heard from Jeong Jin-dong, my father’s colleague, who was on the train with him that day, my father left his seat at Yeongdeung-po station, saying he would be back soon. Mr. Jeong thought that he had gone for restroom, but he never returned to his seat. He got off from the train to come home to see us. I could not understand why he had to leave the train and allowed himself to be caught. Now that I am married and have children myself, I can understand why he did so. He was a husband and a father of five children. The eldest was eleven and the youngest was only two. And an escape of a high-ranking official could inflict harm on the remaining family members at the time of war. He didn’t want to flee alone leaving his wife and children behind, knowing that it would put us in harm’s way.

It was soon after he came back when we heard that a bridge over the Han River was torn down. We had no choice but to stay in Seoul because the bridge was the only way to cross the river to south. So we dug an air-raid shelter under an outhouse in the back yard to protect us from bombardments. We took things that we thought were important, such as photo albums and diplomas, and put them in a large jar and buried it. I was only nine years old, but I did my best to help him. However, my father could not stay with us long, because people kept coming to capture him. He went to the house of his sister-in-law in Anam-doing to hide. But before long, he heard that the Seodae-mun area where our house was located was bombarded so severely that it was engulfed in flames. He was so worried that he could not stay at his hideout. Under the cover of night, he came home to see us.


Reason behind the Abduction

Q. Why do you think he was abducted?

A2.(Son) Before we moved to Seoul, we lived in Daegu, a southern city. My father decided to leave the city when its public security was deteriorated with an increasing number of communists. He resigned his post as the dean of Daegu University and moved to Seoul taking his family with him. In Seoul, he worked as public security expert member of the National Assembly.
His position was an Assistant Minister level. As Korea’s legal system was not complete and there were not many legal experts at that time, my father was very busy reviewing and amending laws including the constitution, civil, commercial, and administrative laws. He contributed greatly to establishing Korea’s legal framework. I think my father was abducted because he was a legal expert who could be very useful to the North.


News after the Abduction

Q. Have you heard about him after the abduction?

A1. (Wife) After he was abducted, I heard that he had been taken to the National Library(where . I went there with my eldest daughter to only find out that he had been transferred to somewhere else after staying there for two nights. In our town, there was a place in a hospital where the families of abductees gathered to share information. One day, I heard that a person named Kang Tae-yoon who had escaped after being abducted came to share his story. According to him, he and other abductees including my husband were first taken to the basement of the National Library and then to several other places.
They stayed for two days at the basement of the Hwashin department store and for several days at the Seodaemun Prison, and then they began a torturous journey to the North. On the journey, he asked my husband to escape with him, taking advantage of bombing. But my husband said, “I can’t. If we are captured, we will be shot to death. I can’t risk my life like that. I need to stay alive until the last minute to see my family again.” So Mr. Kang took his chance and managed to escape during the bombing, while my husband stayed put.

A2. (Son) After my father’s abduction, my family fled to Pung-gi where my grandfather was taking refuge from Pyongyang. One day, one of the North Korean prisoners of war came to our house to meet my grandfather. He said that he had met with my father when he had gone to a village named Gang-gye near the Am-nok River to collect woods. The village was basically a prison camp for South Korean abductees.
Some of them came to the soldier and asked where his hometown was. The soldier said it was Young-ju, and it was then a man who was playing Korean chess came out and asked the soldier if he could recognize him. The man introduced him as a candidate who had run for a member of National Assembly in Young-ju. The man was my father.
My father told the soldier that there would be an exchange of war prisoners according to the ceasefire treaty and hoped the soldier reunite with his family. He also asked the soldier to tell my grandfather that his son was alive and living in Gang-gye, if the soldier met my grandfather in Pung-gi. My father knew that my grandfather would go to Pung-gi if he fled from Pyongyang.
The news the soldier delivered to us was the last piece of news of my father. I do not know the name of the soldier. Later I tried to find his whereabouts, but I could not.