Abductee: Chong Sun-il
Recorded Date: July 30th, 2013


Profile of Abductee

Name: Chong Sun-il(male)
Date of birth: April 20th, 1917 (lunar calendar)
Place of birth: Cheongyang-gun, Chungcheongnam-do, Korea
Last address: Dohwa-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul
Date of abduction: Around July in 1950 (age 33)
Place of abduction: Home
Occupation: Owner of a tailor’s shop
Education/Career: Vice-captain of Mapo branch of Daehan Young Men’s Association (a rightist group)
Dependants: Wife, 4 children
Appearance/Personality: mild and gentle, having strong sense of justice


Profile of Witness

Name: Chong Yong-nam (born in 1943)
Relation: Son
Type of Witness: Indirect witness


Summary of Abduction

- He ran a tailor’s shop in Mapo-gu, Seoul.
- The abductee was actively involved in the rightist group, Daehan Young Men’s Association, and struggled against the Communists before the war broke out.
- When the war broke out, the abdcutee’s stepbrothers advised him to flee for a refuge, but he did not leave Seoul but stayed in the loft hiding himself from the Communists. He thought that Seoul would be recaptured by South Korean Army or Allied Army soon, so did not leave his house.
- One day when he was hiding in the loft as usual, one of the neighbors searched the loft, found him and took him.
- The abductee was taken to the Mapo Prison and no news was heard since then.
- An escapee who was an acquaintance of the abductee said that he was taken to the Miari Ridge along with the abductee on the way toward the North.


Detail of the Abduction

Q. What did your father do for a living at the time of abduction?
After my father graduated high school or middle school, he learned tailoring skills in Seoul and then opened his own shop in Hamgyeongnam-do (now North Korean district) and married my mother. In 1941, they moved to Gongdeok-dong, Mapo in Seoul.. He ran his own tailor’s shop there but he was not working hard on his job but often had a fight with the leftists and in trouble being chased by the leftists. Also, Kim Doo-han (a son of an independence fighter, a famous gangster with chivalrous sprit who fought against Japanese authority and then against Communists). According to my mother, he was a vice-captain of Mapo branch of Daehan Young Men’s Association (a rightist group).

Q. How was he abducted?
His family, including his stepbrothers, all advised him to flee for refugee, but he said that Seoul would be recaptured by South Korean Army or Allied Army soon so he only needed to be staying in the hide-out for some time, and insisted not leaving Seoul. I remember that scene. I also went up the loft and hid myself there. And my mother carried up meal for us and I enjoyed going up and down. After the Korean War broke out, he was abducted around July, so he’d been staying hidden there for good two months.
One day, a North Korean soldier, looked like one of local residents. We were quite close like he was my uncle, he knew somehow my father was in the loft and searched there. A soldier in uniform was standing outside my house and he searched all over the house and then finally pointed the loft with his finger.
Two people came inside and folded his arms both sides and took him outside then fastened him around with a rope and then took him. He was about to have breakfast but he didn’t even have a bite. I remember that he was wearing a white pajama. He was taken being fastened to his wrists, right from the very place where he was sitting. He spoke something turning his head back, but I didn’t understand what he said. I was just seven at that time, and I just remember he shook his head on the way he was being taken.

Q. While he was living in the hide-out, nobody visited your house and threatened you to hand him to them?
Yes, some people did but I don’t remember what they said. I just remember that they raised their voice and argued with something I didn’t understand at that time. I couldn’t think of asking him about that. One person was a leader among residents in the neighborhood district. He was quite intimate with my family and he kept asking to my mother where he’d gone, where he’d hidden and things like that. I was too young at that time and my memory is not clear.


Reason behind the Abduction

Q. Why do you think he was abducted?
He was actively involved in the rightist group, Daehan Young Men’s Association.


News after the Abduction

Q. Then, do you know where he was taken to?
According to rumors after he was taken, people taken to the Mapo Prison were all dead. So, some of the relatives and my mother went to the Mapo Prison in order to find his dead body, if he was also killed. All through the night, they looked for the dead body but found nothing and returned home empty handed. Wherever we heard that some people were killed by the North there, we went there to see if we can find his dead body. But all the effort was proven to be vain.

Q. Any news after that?
I heard that someone was taken but managed to escape. According to him, all the arrested were taken to the North, and when he was passing over the Miari Ridge, he heard some gun shots and some of the arrested ran away in a hurry and the rest stayed there and kept being taken to the North. And I didn’t hear what happened to the rest after that. My mother said that the people who took the abductees all lied to us telling, “If he is proven to be innocent, he will return soon.”
The abductees were killed because they participated in the anti-communist rightist activities and the Communists listed them up as their first and foremost reactionaries to be gotten rid of. She thought that the Communists killed the abductees on the way to the North, but she couldn’t find my father’s dead body to prove her theory. She also thought that he had tailoring skill so he might have been taken to the North.