Family finds peace after gov't recognizes lost brother as POW

SEOUL, July 22 (Yonhap) -- A brother of a South Korean soldier, once believed to have defected to North Korea during the Vietnam War, said Wednesday his family was relieved by the government's recent decision to reclassify his brother a prisoner of war (POW) instead of a deserter.

Army Ssg. Ahn Hak-soo was labeled a defector on South Korean records until April
this year, as he had been heard making anti-Seoul speeches on North Korean radio
months after he mysteriously disappeared in September 1966 while fighting in
Vietnam.
A recent fact-finding team by the Defense Ministry, however, found concrete
evidence in Vietnam in September of last year leading them to believe that Ahn
was in fact captured by North Vietnamese forces and sent to North Korea against
his will.
While no official record of Ahn was available, military officials said he was
believed to have been executed by a firing squad for trying to escape the
communist state in 1975.
Ahn Yong-soo, a brother of the soldier in question, has been pushing for the
government to reclassify his brother as a POW instead of defector. It was
revealed on Tuesday that military intelligence officials obtained circumstantial
evidence of Kim's suspected death in 1975, but kept it secret from the family
until recently.
The younger Ahn, who recently obtained documents from the military saying his
brother had died, said at a press conference that his family was "freed from a
long shackle" after the current government decided to reclassify him as a POW.
"Our family sought for the correction many times since 1966, but were rejected
and had to live through hardship and endurance from having to bear from sometimes
insulting remarks," he said.
"I am at a loss for words. It is belated, but still fortunate."
He underscored that the decision by the government was a "historical" one, as it
reversed all of the decisions made by past administrations regarding his brother.
"The current administration seems to have made a big determination (to correct
the issue), and said that he was in fact disappointed at the former President Kim
Dae-jung for not having better reviewed the case despite his renowned affinity
for human rights issues.
Kim Yong-gyu, a former North Korean army general who described himself as having
sought "political exile" in the South, said that he knew from intuition that Ahn
Hak-soo was captured by the North against his free will.
"I heard on North Korean media that Ahn Hak-soo voluntarily came to North Korea,
but I had a feeling that it was fake. If he truly came by his own will, he would
have received a grand welcoming ceremony." said Kim, a former North Korean spy
who infiltrated to the South seven times in the past.
Kim was one of the key witnesses who testified to military officials in the past
that Ahn Hak-soo was likely captured by the North.
Ahn is not the only South Korean veteran on record who went AWOL in Vietnam. Sgt.
Park Seong-ryeol was also found speaking on North Korean radio while two others
-- a captain and a staff sergeant -- remain unaccounted for to this day.
They are also believed to have ended up in the North, as a ransom of US$3,000 was
offered for every South Korean soldier captured at the time.
Nearly 5,000 South Korean soldiers died and 10,000 others wounded in the Vietnam
War.