SOUTH KOREA: A 72-YEAR-OLD FORMER PRISONER OF WAR HELD IN NORTH KOREA FOR 50 YEARS IS DICHARGED FROM HIS MILITARY BASE IN POCHON
Record ID:
208361
SOUTH KOREA: A 72-YEAR-OLD FORMER PRISONER OF WAR HELD IN NORTH KOREA FOR 50 YEARS IS DICHARGED FROM HIS MILITARY BASE IN POCHON
- Title: SOUTH KOREA: A 72-YEAR-OLD FORMER PRISONER OF WAR HELD IN NORTH KOREA FOR 50 YEARS IS DICHARGED FROM HIS MILITARY BASE IN POCHON
- Date: 19th January 2004
- Summary: (W4) POCHON, SOUTH KOREA (JANUARY 20, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. WS: POCHON UNIT SOLDIERS SALUTING FORMER PRISONER OF WAR JEON YONG-IL 0.05 2. JEON YONG-IL SALUTING POCHON SOLDIERS 0.10 3. JEON YONG-IL'S FAMILY MEMBERS 0.15 4. JEON YONG-IL BEING DISCHARGED AND RECEIVING DISCHARGE CERTIFICATE 0.24 5. WS: POCHON UNIT OFFICIALS CLAPPING 0.30 6. VARIOUS OF JEON YONG-IL WITH WREATH IN JEEP (3 SHOTS) 0.49 7. WS: MORE OF MILITARY OFFICIALS CLAPPING 0.53 8. JEON YONG-IL SHAKING HANDS WITH COMMANDER OF JEON'S UNIT AT THE TIME OF HIS CAPTURE 1.01 9. JEON YONG-IL POSING FOR PICTURE 1.06 10. (SOUNDBITE) (Korean) FORMER PRISONER OF WAR JEON YONG-IL SAYING: "I'm very happy to be back home, to be welcomed like this." 1.14 11. JEON YONG-IL MEETING HEAD OF KOREAN VETERANS ASSOCIATION (IN BLACK COAT) 1.23 12. SLV: JEON YONG-IL STANDING UP AND CLAPPING 1.29 13. FORMER UNIT COLLEAGUES WATCHING 1.34 14. JEON YONG-IL'S FAMILY WATCHING 1.38 15. SCU: JEON YONG-IL SALUTING; JEON YONG-IL HUGGING MILITARY UNIT OFFICER 1.51 16. SV: OFFICER HOLDING HANDS WITH JEON YONG-IL 1.55 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 3rd February 2004 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: POCHON, SOUTH KOREA
- Country: South Korea
- Reuters ID: LVAEIUVM4V5XFG3TGLW3Q74IM2TK
- Story Text: A former prisoner of war held in North Korea for 50
years is discharged from his military unit back at home.
Seventy-two-years-old Jeon Yong-il was discharged
from his military unit on Monday (January 19) in South
Korea, 50 years after he was captured by Chinese forces in
the Korean War (1950-1953).
The discharge ceremony took place at the Pochon
military unit, a base about 90 kilometres east of Seoul
where Jeon had been stationed.
Jeon was honoured with a discharge certificate and
cheered by his family as well as by soldiers and the
commander from his unit.
"I'm very happy to be back home, to be welcomed like
this," Jeon said.
The return of Jeon Yong-il caps a saga of capture by
communist forces in 1953, long internment in North Korea
and eventual escape into China this year -- only to be
caught and threatened with repatriation back to the North's
gulag.
The South Korea he left was a sleepy agricultural
backwater barely recovered from 35 years of harsh Japanese
colonial rule when it was overrun by invading North Korean
troops in 1950. Now, hi-tech South Korea is the world's
12th largest economy.
He was apprehended late last year while trying to fly
into South Korea with a fake passport from China.
He and a female companion had sneaked into China
from North Korea in April or May this year.
He had identified himself as a prisoner of war -- one
of the as many as 300 South Korea believes are still alive
in North Korea 50 years after the end of the war.
But since Jeon was not on the South Korean Defence
Ministry's list of prisoners of war -- he was on the
killed-in-action list -- he was not helped until his family
came forward with photos.
Beijing has an agreement with Pyongyang to repatriate
North Koreans who illegally enter China despite accounts
from defectors, aid workers and analysts that those sent
back face torture or even execution at the hands of
security forces.
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None