A comprehensive review of the testimonies demonstrate that there were several kinds of ways abductees were arrested and taken away to North Korea during the Korean War. North Korean forces only occupied Seoul for three days, but they moved aggressively to discover the whereabouts of important figures targeted for abduction. They did this by spreading propaganda calling on those in hiding to turn themselves in and, all the while, received active support from local leftists.
The most aggressive method used by the North Korean forces to arrest South Korean civilians was to wait for word from local leftists that a person in hiding had returned home, and then agents from North Korea's Department of Internal Affairs would mount an assault against the house. When South Korean civilians were not in hiding, agents would stop by their house and nonchalantly say they needed to be interviewed at the station. The agents promised that they could return after the interview was done, but the interviewees never returned. There were also cases of young people taken away under the banner of joining the "volunteer army." North Korean authorities would tell students to come out to their schools or places of work, corner them on the streets, or take them away from their homes.
The authorities in some cases would use torture against the son of a father in hiding to force the father to turn himself in. The son was then released. This was not always the case, however. In one tragic case the father did not turn himself in so the son was taken away instead. It is hard to imagine how difficult it must have been for the father that his son was taken away rather than himself.
A supplement to this collection includes video testimony by Kim Yong Il and Pak Myeong Ja, two South Korean civilians who succeeded in escaping North Korea after being abducted. These testimonies provide important information concerning the route South Korean civilians were taken into North Korea after being abducted. During the Korean War, there were numerous cases of people who successfully escaped the clutches of their North Korean abductors, but now there are only a few such survivors left to tell their story. Kim Young Il's abduction case is typical in that he was considered a so-called "political criminal" because of his association with the right-wing "Northwest Youth League." After being interned at North Korea's Department of Internal Affairs and Political Security Agency and until he was placed in the Seodaemun Prison, Kim was forced to write several confessions that the authorities used to understand his past activities and measure the degree of his crimes. Pak Myeong Ja's case demonstrates yet another way North Korean forces abducted South Korean citizens. Pak was a student at a school of nursing, and when North Korean forces occupied the area she lived she was forced to nurse wounded soldiers. She was later forced to move northwards with her patients.

PREFACE
4 To Restore History (Lee Mi-il)

Testimonies of the Korean War Abductees' Families

15 My Long Lost Father's Room (Lee Jeong-hwa)
27 In the South Village Across the Hill (Kim Yeong-sik)
41 A Classical Scholar of Korea in Bloodstained Clothes (Jeong Yang-mo)
53 A Journalist With "Justice" As His Pen (Lee Tae-yeong)
69 I'll Be Home Soon (Kwon Yeong-hwan)
79 Father's Returned Watch (Kim Yeong-il)
89 Even After All Those Years, Still Missing Father (Kim Nam-ju)
97 A Shepherd Who Could Not Leave His Sheep Behind (Kim Seong-ho)
109 Is That You? (Kim Hang-tae)
117 Crying Over the Miari Ridge (Kim Jae-jo)
127 With My Father Was Gone My World (Seo Jae-seol)
139 Ho-cheol, Are You Still Alive? (An Cheong-ja)
151 The Name That Makes Me Choke With Sorrow (Yun Myeong-sik)
159 Will We Be Able to See Each Other Again? (Yoo Un-ji)
167 My Father's Expectation Embedded in My Name (Lee Mi-il)
185 Willing To Give Up His Life For His Son (Lee Won-mok)
193 Crying Over the Dock Of Mapo (Lee Ui-hoon)
203 Brothers Who Shared Life and Death in Battle Fields (Lee Jun-mo)
215 The Son Of an In-Voluntary Soldier (Choi Sang-dong)
223 The Last Salute (Choi Gwang-seok)
237 Lessons from the War (Choi Gwang-seok)
247 You Still Remain As a Romantic Husband In My Heart (Seong Gap-sun)

APPENDIX - Testimonies of the Escaped Abductees
264 A Death March (Kim Yong-il)
274 A Miraculous Escape (Park Myeong-ja)