As they watch Americans go free, families of South Koreans kidnapped by Pyongyang feel frustrated and forgotten
‘Why is President Moon speaking out for American detainees and Japanese abductees while remaining silent about the hundreds of South Koreans who never returned?’
North Korea’s release of three American detainees offers some hope for the relatives of hundreds of South Koreans abducted over the years by the North.
But the families are also frustrated, feeling they’ve been forgotten amid a global diplomatic push to resolve a nuclear stand-off with Pyongyang
The families say their decades-long struggle to bring home their loved ones has been ignored by Pyongyang and successive governments in Seoul. Current South Korean President Moon Jae-in, they say, has sidelined human rights issues as he reaches out to the North.
Still, Wednesday’s release of the Americans raises the possibility that their cases will be addressed in future talks with the North, including a meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and US President Donald Trump that could happen in the coming weeks.
“My only hope is with President Trump,” said Hwang In-cheol, the son of a broadcast journalist whose flight was hijacked by a North Korean operative nearly 50 years ago. “I hope he puts the nuclear problem and human rights issue on the same table and solves them at once.”
