Abductee: Jeong In-bo
Recorded Date: Dec. 15th, 2005


Profile of Abductee

Name: Jeong In-bo (Pen Name: Widang)
Date of Birth: May 6, 1893
Pace of Birth: Seoul, South Korea
Last Address: Namsan-dong, Seoul, South Korea
Date of abduction: July 30, 1950 (age 57)
Place of abduction: Home
Occupation: Korean Classical Scholar and Historian
Education/Career: Scholar of Chinese Classics, Educator and Journalist
Dependants: Wife, 4 Sons, 3 Daughters
Appearance/Personality: Gentle and Good-natured


Profile of Testifier

Name: Jeong Yang-mo (born in 1934)
Relations: Son
Type of Witness: Indirect witness


Summary of the Abduction

- He devoted his life to establish correct view of Korean history, not affected by Japanese colonial oppression. He founded a University of Korean Studies and published <Study on the History of Chosun Dynasty> and other Korean history books.
- On around June 28th, three soldiers of the Communist Army started to watch on the abductee’s family around his house.
- The abductee’s son-in-law (son of the famous writer Hong Myeong-hee), who was in the prison of South Korea on a charge of committing the leftist activities, visited the abductee before the Korean War broke out to persuade him to cooperate with the Communist North. But the abductee refused to do so.
- His oldest son, who worked for the Minister of Education was released after some time of detention in the prison by the North.
- After the abductee was arrested and got tortured in the prison, he was released for some days, but when he came back, he was taken again by the North, while the house was empty.


Description of abduction

Q. Please describe the situations when the Korean War broke out.

My family was living in Gahoe-dong when the Korean War broke out. The North Korean Army reached Seoul within just three days with the speed of a whirlwind. On the morning of June 28, someone hurriedly came to our house and told us about the outbreak of a war. The government tried to calm the public and stop them from escaping by broadcasting that the ROK Army would soon recapture Seoul. Its announcements were assuring enough that whenever there was a roaring of guns we believed that was from our soldiers firing at the enemy.
And whenever we saw an airplane, we thought it belonged to our army. But it turned out to be the North Korean air force. Our military power was no match for that of North Korea. We did not have a single combat plane; we only had helicopters. Nor did we have a tank, not to mention other weaponry. However, our soldiers fought bravely. In order to stop tanks, they loaded dynamites onto trucks and drove them straight toward tanks until they crashed into. But we were no match for them.
Then-president Rhee Syng-man, however, made an announcement different from what was actually happening as if he had no information on the situation. Believing what he said, the majority of Seoul citizens did not leave the capital city. I came to know that Seoul had already been captured by the North Korean Army only after I saw a sea of red flags being held by North Korean soldiers in Myeongdong, central Seoul.
Around 3pm on the 28th, three people who called themselves as special agents from the North Korean Political Defense Bureau came to our house and said that the house was large enough for them to live in. And they began to keep an eye on us by living with us in the house.
They said that they had not come from north with the North Korean Army, but had come from south. Whenever my father wanted to go out to see what was going on, they stopped him, saying that he would get into a big trouble.

Q. Please describe the situations more detail. He was under surveillance of the North, right?

Yes. One day, my aunt’s husband visited my father and persuaded him to cooperate with the North Korean government. He was a second son of my father’s old friend, Hong Myeong-hee. Hong Myeong-hee and my father fought together for the liberation from the Japanese colonial rule. But they chose a different path and drifted apart after the liberation since my father was a nationalist and he was a socialist. During the period of the US army military government rule, several rounds of talks were made between the North and the South, and a number of socialists in South moved to the North. My aunt’s husband was one of them. He crossed the border together with all his family and Mr. Hong’s family, too. Before long, he moved back down to the South with his family as a North Korean spy. Before the war broke out, he was arrested for operating as a spy and imprisoned in Incheon after a trial. After being released, he visited my father to persuade him to help the North Korean government.
No matter how much he tried, my father would not budge an inch. He said, “You are a materialist and I am a theist. We cannot work together just like fire and water cannot be together.” And my aunt’s husband said in a cold voice, “I respect you remaining faithful to you principles. But as long as you don’t cooperate with us, you are nothing more than a reactionary.”
On the following day, a platoon armed with submachine guns came over to our house to force my family out. They called us “reactionaries”.

Q. Why didn’t your family escape Seoul?

We had nowhere to go. Fortunately, one of my father’s friends who used to run an ENT clinic had a vacant hospital building in Nakwon-dong that we could stay for a while. At that time, an abscess on my father’s back got so serious that he could not even walk. He urged me and my brothers and sisters to go to a safer place to hide while he and mother would stay at the building.
We obeyed and went to my uncle’s house Siheung. We spent most of time hiding in a back room, not to be noticed by anyone in the neighbor, and when there was any suspicious sign in the neighborhood, all five of us dug a hole under the floor and hid there for a couple of months. It was horrible to hide in such a small hole for such a long time. We all suffered from back pain and festering sores.
Not before long, my uncle said that he would not be able to offer a hideout for us any longer because harboring us in his house could put his family in danger. We left the house that night and spent two days in the mountain without eating anything before we came back to our house in Seoul. Buildings and houses in Seoul were full of dead bodies.

Q. Please describe how your father was abducted.

Soon after we came back home, we could hear from mother that father had been abducted by the North. My mother remembered the date of his kidnapping as July 30. On that day, mother left the hospital building to go to a clothing store to buy a new piece of clothe for father as bloody pus from the abscess on his back stained all his clothes.
While she was out, people from the Internal Bureau burst into the building and kidnapped father. At that moment, he was with his eldest son who worked as an editor at the Ministry of Education and both of them were taken.
They were first told that they would be taken to the Internal Bureau for a quick questioning. But they were taken to the basement of the former national library building, a three-story red brick building.
The agents told my brother to come back the next day, but father gave him a look, telling him to never come back. So he ran away as soon as he was released. That was the last time he saw father and we have not heard any news from him since then.
I regret every single day that I had left the hospital building with my brothers and sisters, leaving him behind for our own safety. With China’s decision to intervene in the Korean War on behalf of North Korea, Seoul citizens had to flee to south once again.
Before the January 4th Retreat, my family packed our things and went to the Seoul station to catch a train heading south. We did not know which train was the right one and ran about in confusion at first, but with luck, we safely arrived in Busan in the end.
During the war, one of my older bothers fought as a platoon leader and died in battle. The war was finally over after three years, but we felt a hole in our hearts, missing father so badly. But we could not even have each other’s shoulder to cry on since my brothers and sisters were all scattered and had difficult times to make ends meet.


Reason behind the Abduction

Q. Why do you think he was abducted?
My father was appointed as the head of the Inspection Bureau under the new government with then-president Rhee Syng-man as his integrity and uprightness were highly recognized.
His family and acquaintances dissuaded him from taking the job but he accepted the offer, saying that it was his duty to serve his country when it needed him the most. In the office, he was very strict with the rules, not allowing any corruption or wrongdoing that was common in the early days of a new government.
He even told his subordinates not to even have a cup of tea for free or borrow a cigarette while doing an inspection outside. He also impeached then-Minister of Agriculture, Cho Bong-am and then-Minister of International Trade and Industry, Im Young-shin for their wrongdoings and he became the target of powerful political figures.
After all, he stepped down from his position. And when he submitted his resignation, he also contributed an article to a newspaper arguing that the government should secure the livings of officials in order to make them not to be tempted by bribes.


News after the Abduction

Q. Have you heard any news about him?
We had not heard anything about him since his abduction until we found out his death in a newspaper article in 1962. But my family and I did not believe it. My mother kept waiting her husband to come home believing that he was still alive. Every day she made his meal and put it in a warm place to keep it from getting cold. She starched his clothes and hung them in his room every spring and autumn. She had strongly believed until she passed away that all those efforts could bring him home.
I did not lose my hope even when a westerner named Handerson told me 20 years ago that he had seen my father’s grave in North Korea. But recently I heard once again from someone that there is my father’s grave in Pyongyang. I assumed he would have passed away, given his weak constitution. But now that I hear those words, I cannot help but grieve.