Former North Korean soldier, jailed in the South for 42 years, may return home

Straits Times

14 hours ago

Most captured North Korean troops were repatriated but some were not sent back for various reasons.
SEOUL - South Korea's Ministry of Unification is reportedly reviewing the possible repatriation of Mr Ahn Hak-sop, a former North Korean soldier captured during the Korean War which lasted between 1950 and 1953, whose refusal to renounce the North's communist system led him to be imprisoned for over four decades.
According to Yonhap News Agency on Aug 4, the 95-year-old Mr Ahn submitted a request to the government in July 2025 asking to be returned to the North. Ministry officials visited him at his hospital on July 23 to check on his physical condition, verify his specific demands, and find out why he was asking to be sent back now.
Mr Ahn had a chance to be repatriated to the North under the Kim Dae-jung administration in 2000, when 63 long-term prisoners who refused to convert had been sent to North Korea. But at the time, he decided to stay, saying he would 'fight until the US military leaves South Korea.'
The North Korean government considers the US its greatest enemy, and demands that the country pull out its forces from the Korean Peninsula, at least publicly.
Mr Ahn, a sympathiser of the communist North, has said that he should have been repatriated long ago as a prisoner of war since he had served in the North Korean military. But he said at a protest on Aug 2 that he now wishes to be buried with his comrades in the North, with whom he served time at the South Korean prison.
He has recently been suffering from age-related health issues.
Ministry officials made it clear that a working-level review of Mr Ahn's request is underway, and it has not even been reported to the minister yet.
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Inter-Korean relations have been icy in recent years, and the dictatorial Kim Jong-un regime has not responded to recent requests from the South Korean government to repatriate the North Koreans rescued at sea in March and May 2025. The six North Koreans were sent back on July 9 and were picked up at sea by navy vessels from the communist state.
Behind bars for 42 years
Mr Ahn was captured in April 1953, just three months before the Korean War Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27 of that year. He was tried by a South Korean court under the now-defunct National Guard Act, and was convicted of aiding and abetting the enemy, meaning North Korea.
Most captured North Korean troops were repatriated under the so-called Operation Big Switch, a mutual exchange of all remaining prisoners of the Korean War. But some soldiers were not sent back for various reasons: tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers were not returned by North Korea as they had 'converted to communism,' according to Pyongyang.
A handful of North Korean soldiers were held here and were told to renounce the North Korean system, with Mr Ahn and several others being subjected to torture. The state-affiliated truth and reconciliation commission in 2009 acknowledged that severe human rights violations had occurred during this process, urging the South Korean government to make an official apology.
The commission's report also found that state officials repeatedly tried to convert Mr Ahn between 1973 and 1995, attempting to use his family to persuade him. The report showed that prison officials recorded sounds from Mr Ahn's family home to play for him and subjected him to various forms of torture. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK