Daughter of Korean POW Successfully Enters 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.”

Young-ok and her son originally planned to enter the Korean Embassy on June 17, but their brokers detained them somewhere in Tumon, Jilin Province in China after their request to let another defector, Ms. Jo (37), to immigrate to Korea with the Jangs was turned down by the Korean government.

Before the event, Mr. Jang and his second son, Young-cheol (33), who escaped North Korea on February 27, entered Korea on June 1, and on June 24 they met with their five younger brothers and sisters who are alive in Korea. Mr. Jang’s wife, Kim Ok-ryeon (68), and eldest son, Young-bok (35), who escaped North Korea on March 4 and 22, respectively, entered Korea together at the end of the last month and are currently being questioned by relevant authorities.

weappon@donga.com