[imText1]While returning home after completing work in the West Sea in 1972, a grandmother who had to part from her husband after being abducted by the North Korean patrol ship committed suicide by taking poison after yearning for her husband.

At the same time, it was reported in the news that the Taliban who held hostages captive agreed to release them. The families of the freed captives all rejoiced and breathed sighs of relief. However, the death of the wife of the abducted husband did not receive any attention.

The deceased grandmother Yu, after receiving information from the Korea Red Cross in 2006 October that her “abducted husband was killed” became very distressed and even prepared a funeral portrait. Her family said, “She missed our father all her life and after hearing the news of his death, seemed to have lost all meaning in life.”

Grandmother Yu’s husband Park Doo Hyun, while catching fish in the West Sea on top of the Five Oceans No. 62 on December 28, 1972, became abducted along with Five Oceans No. 61. The captain of No. 61 was grandmother Yu’s brother Kyung Chun (deceased, age 54 at the time). 16 and eight crew were riding on Five Oceans No. 61 and 62, respectively.

35 years passed since Mr. Park was abducted in such a manner, but grandmother Yu did not even know whether Mr. Park was alive or dead until the news of his death from the Red Cross Society last October. The suffering of grandmother Yu who had to go on living without knowing whether or not her husband was alive can only be surmised.

It is not only grandmother Yu who suffered from North Korea’s anti-humanitarian acts of crime. Currently, after the Korean War, the number of people who were forcibly abducted to North Korea was 3,790 and of these, 3,300 returned to their home countries, but those who did not return reached 480.

They abducted so many of our neighbors and drove them and their families to pain, but the South Korean government could not understand their pain, but persecuted the families with the immaterial punishment of “guilt by association.” Our society has contributed to greater pain of the families by McCarthyism.

Now, our society has democratized and the perspective regarding abducted families has changed a lot, but we cannot estimate their deep-rooted pain.

The biggest victims of the era of the divided nation, the abductees and their families, are now telling us to “have an interest in us.” Saving the Taliban hostages is important, but we cannot forget the request to repatriate abductees to the North Korean government.

The abductees’ families are shouting, “Even dogs are coming and going, so why can’t abductees come?” Grandmother Yu is supposed to have abandoned everything else and participated in abductees’ repatriation meetings until before her death.

Abductees’ family unions, at the normalization talks, have officially requested that the abduction issue is treated as a formal topic of discussion. However, the government has shown no response.