Abductee: Park Hyon-Myong
Recorded Date: July 25th, 2013


Profile of Abductee

Name: Pak Hyon-Myong
Date of birth: July 8th, 1902 (lunar calendar)
Place of birth: Pak-chon, Imja-dong, Hageoseo-myeon, Bukcheong-gun, Hamgyeongnam-do(Now North Korean territory)
Last address: 35-1, Chungjeongno 3-ga, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, South Korea
Date of abduction: August 23rd, 1950
Place of abduction: Home
Occupation: General President of Holiness Church, Professor of Theology in the Bible Institute, Chairman of Korean Christian Federation
Dependants: Wife, 4 children (2 sons and 2 daughters)
Appearance/Personality: sturdy-built and handsome, stern to his children


Profile of Witness

Name: Park Sang-jeung (born in 1930)
Relation: Son (oldest)
Type of Witness: Indirect witness


Summary of Abduction

- The abductee had been leading the Korean Christians since the Japanese Colonial era, and at the time of abduction, he was the general president of Holiness Church.
- During the Korean War, he had been hiding in a hideout, but when the North Koreans admitted the worship of Christians, he went back home and planned to build a church. But it was proven that he was deceived by the North Korean communists.
- My father was mentioned in a radio program that he attended in the funeral of An Jae-hong(a famous politician who was abducted as well), and that proves he was alive for a few years after the abduction.



Detail of the Abduction

Q. What did your father do around the time of abduction?
He was a professor of theology and holiness church. He was not involved in the Christian Democratic Union but he held the president of Christian Federation right after the liberation from Japan.

Q. Was he involved in any kind of rightist group such as Korea Young Men’s Association or something?
No he didn’t.

Q. Do you have any memory of the time when the Korean War broke out?
When the Korean War broke out, I was not in Seoul, so my memory is from my brothers’. After the North Koreans forced down to Seoul, my family just stayed living in our house. But out of the blue, one day they kicked us out of the house. Since then, my family and my father started to live from place to place and from hideouts and hideouts. There was no option because we failed to cross the Han River and just wander within Seoul.
Why my father couldn’t cross the Han River is like this. Some of my school friends tried to persuade my father to onboard the ship at the Mapo Ferry and cross the Han river with them, but he refused to do so saying “There are many people failed to escape Seoul, so I should take care of them first and you guys don’t worry about me just go on your way.” He went home back and kept living in hideouts not to be captured by the North. But after the North Korean occupation of Seoul, people from the Security Bureau tried to win my father over to their Communist side.
After a year, one of the friends who were there at the Mapo Ferry, came to the U.S. and sent a letter of this story to me. I was also studying in the US at that time. That’s how I know this story.

Q. How was the situation of the abduction?
After the North Korean’s occupation of Seoul, the Security Bureau officers started to win the South Korean leaders over their Communist side. As a result, almost all of churches and theology schools of Presbyterians and Methodists were reopened. So the pastors who had been hiding came out of their hideouts and planned to restart their churches and schools.
My father was one of them, and he returned home. Right at that time, they took him away. We think that they strategically preplanned deceiving and taking away the innocent civilians.

Q. Could you please describe the situation in detail?
At that time, there was a Chosun Christianity Union, made by the North. They forced down to South and also made the same one in the South. And they asked southern pastors to come and join in their union and when the pastors had come, they arrested them in one big raid.
My father went out to attend the meeting, wearing hemp clothes and straw hat, saying that he would come home soon. But that was the last time we’ve seen him. He was totally deceived.


Reason behind the Abduction

Q. Why do you think he was abducted?

Your brother told us that Park Cheol, the representative of Musan-gun in North Korea must be in the behind of abduction.
Yes, that’s right. Park Cheol was a deacon of the church, near the Seoul station, of famous pastor Song Chang-geun. He voluntarily went to North Korea. While he had been in South Korea, he was arrested for his Communist activities several times.
Each time he was arrested, the pastor Song Chang-geun paid a bail and had him released. But in spite of pastor Song’s all the effort, he finally defected to the North. After he defected to the North, he was dispatched to the South, charged with a mission of manipulating Christian pastors. That’s why my brother said that Park Cheol is in the behind of abduction of my father.

 
News after the Abduction

Q. Any news after your father was abducted? Do you know where he was taken to?
I don’t have any idea. And there was a Presbyterian pastor who was a close friend of my father, as I mentioned, pastor Song Chang-geun. He was a very famous Christian leader at that time, He was also abducted around the same time, and it was verified that he died on the way of being taken to the North. So, we guess that my father was also taken to the North almost the same direction as pastor Song was.
Anyway, no specific information was verified clearly except a news from an old elder of a church in Japan. The elder said that he listened to a North Korean radio program, and he got to know that An Jae-hong, a famous politician who was abducted to the North was passed away at that time and there was a funeral held, and some Christian representatives attended there, and my father’s name was mentioned as one of the attendees.
An Jae-hong died in 1965, so we can say that my father was definitely alive for fifteen years after the abduction. According to another news, abducted pastors were accommodated as a group in a concentration camp near the Amnok River, the Christian women near the town sometimes treated some food to the pastors was exposed. The Christians were executed and the pastors were transferred to another place. And I heard that nothing was informed what happened to them after that.