Activists Release Names of S Korea Abductees

From the Joongang Ilbo:

The head of a group that advocates rights for North Korean abductees said yesterday that the identity of 12 South Koreans being held captive in the North has been ascertained. . . . The list includes former special agents trained to infiltrate the North, former South Korean soldiers and kidnapped South Korean fishermen.

Also included was a South Korean spy who had been sent North to bomb a radio station in Kaesong. How times have changed.

I can’t justify a state sending saboteurs to bomb civilian targets in other states, something that’s distinguishable from an indigenous movement’s campaign to regain the right to peacefully change its government, done in such a manner to minimize civilian loss of life. Still, it’s interesting to contrast Japan’s efforts to get back its abductees, and even the North’s hard work to get back its own spies and saboteurs, to Seoul’s failure to even ask for the return of its civilians and prisoners of war.