91-year-old mother writes Yoon, North's Kim to reunite with abducted son

North Korea

Published: 27 May. 2024, 17:04 Updated: 29 May. 2024, 14:37

91-year-old mother writes Yoon, North's Kim to reunite with abducted son

A handwritten letter from a mother of a then-17-year-old abductee seeks help from South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to reunite with her son who was kidnapped and taken to the North in 1978. [YONHAP]

A 91-year-old woman whose son was kidnapped by North Korean agents four decades ago penned a letter to the regime's leader, Kim Jong-un, asking to be reunited with her abducted child, the Unification Ministry said Friday.

“This old woman’s dying wish is to see my son for one last time,” she wrote in a letter with two recipients: North Korean leader Kim and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.

In August 1978, her then-17-year-old son Hong Gyeon-pyo, and his friend, Lee Myeong-woo, were abducted to the North by Pyongyang’s agents during their summer vacation in Hong Island, Sinan county in South Jeolla.

She delivered the handwritten letter to the South's Ministry of Unification during a ceremony on Friday unveiling a memorial for South Korean abductees in North Jeolla's Seonyu Beach, Gunsan — one of the sites where the kidnapping happened. The monument symbolizes the wishes to repatriate five high schoolers captured by North Korean agents between 1977 and 1978.

“Who could possibly understand [a mother’s] grief and misery when you can no longer see the face of your son who meant to come back home safely?” she wrote.

She added that she has spent every single day of the last four decades missing her son, noting that the slight "possibility of whether she could reunite with her son" was why she is still alive past the age of 90.

In the letter, she said that there would be “no regrets” if she has an opportunity to meet her missing son before she dies, noting that she does not know how many days are left in her life, considering her age.

She also wrote that “her husband died in agony after searching every island within the Jeolla provinces."

An older brother of another abductee surnamed Choi, 68, told reporters that his parents fell ill and died after struggling to find their missing son. The parents had held onto the hope that local fisher people forcibly took their son, rather than North Korean agents.

“I want to see my younger brother’s face for the one last time and pass [the memory] on to the souls of my parents,” Choi said.

U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Julie Turner, third from left, attends an event on Friday unveiling a memorial stone wishing repatriation for South Korean abductees who were taken to the North, which was held in Seonyu Beach, Gunsan in North Jeolla. [YONHAP]

U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Julie Turner also attended Friday’s event, along with South Korean counterparts, including Unification Minister Kim Yung-ho and Lee Shin-hwa, the ambassador for international cooperation on North Korean human rights.

“We should take actions [for the reunion] in the swiftest manner, as families of the abductees are getting old,” Turner told reporters, adding that international mechanisms such as the UN Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review could help solve the issue.

BY LEE JI-YOUNG, LEE SOO-JUNG [lee.soojung1@joongang.co.kr]