LOC19:10
16:10 GMT
TOKYO, Oct 15 (KUNA) -- A state-run panel confirmed Monday that an
additional 364 South Koreans were forcibly taken to North Korea during the
1950-53 Korean War, raising the total number of people verified as abductees
to 1,107, Yonhap News Agency reported.
The Korean War abductees committee under Prime Minister's Office has
conducted investigations on 399 South Koreans who went to the North during the
1950-53 war, and confirmed 364 of them as kidnapped by the communist state.
For the rest of them, the committee either withheld confirmation or
considered them as ending up in the North voluntarily, according to the
report. The committee, which was established last year, has looked into
alleged kidnappings by North Korea during the war to push for the return of
those who are still alive and the remains of those who are not.
Many families of abductees in the North gave up hope that their relatives
were still alive, or feared that activism on their behalf might only endanger
them in the North. The two Koreas are still technically at war as the 1950-53
Korean War ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. (end)
mk.ibi
KUNA 151910 Oct 12NNNN