A rescuer of Korea's forgotten

......If Choe owes his freedom to anyone, it is to his South Korean wife, who never gave up on the possibility of his returning home, and to a soft-spoken but determined rescuer named Choi Sung-yong.

Choi has become the embodiment of hope for families whose loved ones have been abducted by North Korea. His own father was kidnapped from a fishing boat in 1967. Pushed by a mother who "ordered" him to bring his father back, Choi, 55, has spent 15 years developing a network to penetrate the mists of North Korea.

The story of Choe's rescue underscores the perils of Choi's enterprise. More than three decades after being abducted, Choe was still closely watched by North Korean security agents and afraid to risk escape.

"For 32 years I lived under the surveillance of the North Korean security agency," he said at a news conference after his release. "I was not able to eat or live properly."

So acute was his fear that he went to the local police department and reported some of the messengers sent to rescue him. Four of the eight Choi dispatched ended up in the hands of North Korean authorities. Their fate is unknown.

"In the end, this is a happy story," Choi said recently in his cramped Seoul office, its walls papered with photos of abducted South Koreans. They are haunting portraits of previous lives, snapped on graduation days or at tourist attractions with left-behind wives and children. "But there were sacrifices," he added.

"It's like the movie 'Saving Private Ryan' — a lot of people sacrificed to save one man."

‘A HAPPY STORY’: Choe Uk-il is hugged by his South Korean wife, Yang Jeong-ja, upon arrival last month at an airport near Seoul. He and 31 crewmates were seized by North Korea in 1975. After Choe got word out about himself in 1997, Yang and a rescuer of abductees set about trying to help him flee. (AP)

Under President Truman, 30,000 Americans died, in 30 months, to help release South Korea from Kim Il-sung's tyranny

Millions of "South Koreans" would have been starved and enslaved by the Kims' if Truman hadn't decided we should help fight a "police action" against "bandits."

2 posted on 02/08/2007 7:29:01 AM PST by syriacus (30,000 Americans died, in 30 months, to release South Korea from Kim Il-sung's tyranny)

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