North Korean abductions of South Koreans
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An estimated 83,000 South Koreans were taken to North Korea during the Korean War. In addition, South Korean statistics claim that 486 Koreans have been abducted by North Korea since the end of the Korean War. Most of them were captured while fishing near the DMZ, but some were abducted by North Korean agents in South Korea.
The Seoul government has been accused of neglecting the issue of abductees, particularly while the South was under anti-communist military dictatorship, as people feared the exposure of the existence of their relatives in North Korea.
Following democratisation, President Kim Dae Jung sought to establish good relations with Pyongyang. He did not press the issue in the first North-South presidential summit in 2000, and in the following negotiations, North Korea denied their existence.
His successor President Roh Moo-hyun, who continued the Sunshine Policy has also been accused of attaching more importance to keeping good relations with North Korea than pressing the issue of the abductees.
One of the most famous cases of abduction was that of actress Choi Eun-hee and her husband, film director Shin Sang-ok, who were kidnapped by North Korean intelligence in Hong Kong in 1978. They were abducted on the orders of Kim Jong-il, son of the "Great Leader" Kim Il-sung, who wanted to use them to improve the North Korean film industry. Shin attempted to escape, and spent five years in a re-education camp, before being reunited with his wife. While living in North Korea, Shin made the monster movie Pulgasari. They escaped while on a visit to Vienna in 1986.
