[imText1]It was recently discovered that in the early 90’s the South Korean Intelligence Agency learned that 5 high school students abducted by North Korea between 1977~78 were still alive.
On the 16th, Assemblyman Jeong Hyung Gun of the Grand National Party, who belongs to the Intelligence Committee of the National Assembly, revealed through his website, “Our government knew through testimonies of defectors who had defected after 1993, and from secret investigations, that 5 high school students abducted under the ‘Operation for Forcefully Abducting High School Students’ were still alive”.
According to Assemblyman Jeong, two of them had been working as drill instructors until early 2000. While three of them continued to work as drill instructors, the other two were working as a salesmen and a public relations officer.
As already known, spy Kim Kwang Hyun, who was caught in the seas around South Chungcheong province in June 1980, testified that he had heard about the abduction of high school student Kim Young Nam.
During the interrogrations of spy Kim Dong Sik in October 1995, and of Choi Jeong Nam and his wife in 1997, it was revealed that “Lee Min Kyo (at that time 18, a second-year student at Taegwang High School in Pyongtaek, Gyeonggi province) was working as a supermarket clerk in the ‘I-nam-hwa environment building’ located in Yongsung district of Pyongyang”.
In addition, in September 1993, the South Korean Intelligence Agency confirmed from a defector that Choi Sung Min (17, a second-year at Taegwang High School located in Pyongtaek, Gyeonggi province) was called ‘Mr. Kim of the tailor’s shop’ in the I-nam-hwa environment building. About Hong Geon Pyo (17, a third-year at Cheonan Commercial High School) and Lee Myung Woo (17, Cheonan Agriculture High School), spies Kim Dong Sik and Choi Jeong Nam confirmed that, “Mr. Hong and Mr. Lee are working as ‘Instructor Hong’ and ‘Instructor Ma’, respectively, in the I-nam-hwa environment building”.
In the Intelligence Committee meeting held at the National Assembly, Chairman Kim Sung Kyu of the National Intelligence Service reported, “In the process of interrogating spies and defectors, there were witnesses that said abducted high school students were working as instructors at the I-nam-hwa building in North Korea”.
The ‘I-nam-hwa environment building’ is an education building for North Korean spies to experience the lifestyle of South Koreans before being dispatched to South Korea.
Assemblyman Jeong claimed that, “The government should demand confirmation that they are still alive and that the 5 high school students abducted by North Korea be repatriated to the South”, and added, “If the visit of DJ to North Korea happens as planned, the repatriation of the 5 high school students should be on the agenda”.
