A Family Comes Home

The daughter of a South Korean POW, held in North Korea for 50 years in violation of the armistice for 50 years, has escaped into the South Korean Embassy in Beijing.

Jang Young-ok (29), who is a daughter of Korean POW Jang Pan-seon (74) and was detained by a broker organization for North Korean defectors in China, and her son Kang Chang-hyeok (2), successfully entered the Korean Embassy in Beijing on July 2.

Thus the six Jang family members, who were recorded as the first Korean POW family to defect North Korea, can now safely enter South Korea.

Choi Seong-ryong (53), who is the representative of the “gathering of families with abductees to North Korea,” said yesterday, “In the negotiations we had with the North Korea defection brokers, who were sheltering Young-ok and her son, on June 30, they accepted our mediation plan and turned the two over to the Korean Embassy in Beijing.

The articles sheds some light on the morally ambiguous role of “defection brokers,” who helped the family in its successful escape, as well.

If you haven’t already read my account of two of these POWs’ visit to Washington, it’s here. It doesn’t appear that we’re talking about the same individuals.