US Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Meets with ROK POWs: "Hope Fellow Prisoners Return Soon"

Turner: "I Will Reveal the Existence and Sacrifice of Korean War POWs"

Julie Turner, the U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights at the State Department, who visited South Korea, met with elderly South Korean POWs and promised efforts to restore their damages.

According to the nonprofit organization Mulmangcho on the 22nd, Special Envoy Turner met with returned South Korean POW elders Kang Hee-yeol, Kim Jong-su, and Lee Sun-woo at the U.S. Embassy in Jongno-gu, Seoul the previous day. The elders pointed out, "There is international law regarding prisoner exchanges, yet it is difficult to understand how the government has abandoned South Korean POWs for over 50 years," and Elder Kang requested, "Please help ensure that comrades still remaining in North Korean territory can return as soon as possible."

Zoller Turner, U.S. Department of State Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights, is meeting with surviving South Korean War POWs at the U.S. Embassy in Korea on the 21st. [Photo by Moolmangcho Foundation]

Special Envoy Turner promised, "I fully understand and empathize with the pain and sacrifices of the South Korean POWs," adding, "I will do everything possible to raise awareness of the existence of South Korean POWs and the suffering they endured."

During the meeting, proposals for restoring the damages of South Korean POWs were also made. Park Sun-young, director of Mulmangcho, suggested to Special Envoy Turner that instead of simply wishing for the elders to live well, they seek restoration of honor for the years they were captured in North Korea while fighting for their country, proposing the creation and awarding of a symbolic medal between South Korea and the U.S. Lee Jae-won, chairman of the Lawyers for Human Rights and Unification of Korea (Hanbyun), who attended the meeting, said, "It would be good to discuss with the U.S. ways for returned South Korean POW elders who defected from North Korea to receive compensation from the North Korean authorities."

During her visit, which continues until the 25th, Special Envoy Turner plans to explain the inseparable relationship between North Korea's human rights violations and security threats through speeches and meetings, and to raise awareness of issues concerning abductees, detainees, and South Korean POWs. Additionally, on the 24th, she plans to visit Seonyudo in Gunsan, Jeonbuk, where South Korean high school students were abducted in the 1970s, together with Kim Young-ho, Minister of Unification.

Julie Turner, U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights, who visited Korea last February, is paying a courtesy call on Kim Young-ho, Minister of Unification. [Image source=Yonhap News]

Meanwhile, during the 1953 armistice talks, the United Nations Command estimated about 82,000 South Korean soldiers missing in action. However, the number of South Korean POWs finally handed over by the North was only 8,343. North Korea, which had initially boasted of capturing tens of thousands of prisoners, drastically reduced the number to mobilize labor for postwar reconstruction. Until 2010, 80 South Korean POWs had defected from North Korea and returned, with only 9 survivors among them.

According to data compiled by the National Intelligence Service in 2007 based on testimonies from defectors and others, it was estimated that 1,770 South Korean POWs were detained in North Korea at that time. Among them, 560 were alive, 910 deceased, and 300 missing. However, the government has not tracked survivors since 2011.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.