S. Korean fisherman returns home 33 years after being kidnapped by N. Korea

SEOUL, March 3 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean fisherman returned home recently
following his defection from North Korea last year and subsequent custody in a
South Korean diplomatic mission in China, a local civic group said Tuesday.
An association for abductees' families said Yun Jong-su, 66, arrived in South
Korea from China late last month.
"Yun escaped North Korea in May last year and had been in custody in the South
Korean consulate general in Shenyang, China for nine months before he entered the
South recently," Choi Sung-yong, head of the humanitarian group said, adding Yun
will soon meet his family in the South.
Yun was among 33 crew members of the fishing vessel Cheonwang-ho who were
kidnapped by a North Korean coast guard vessel while operating in the East Sea
in 1975. Three members of the crew have returned to the South in recent years
amid a growing number of defections from the North.
About 480 South Koreans, mostly fishermen, have been abducted to North Korea
since the Korean War ended in an armistice in 1953, according to the unification
ministry. Other government data show that if prisoners of war are included, the
number of South Koreans taken to the North exceeds 1,000, while 542 of them were
known to be alive as of the end of 2003.
President Lee Myung-bak has called on the North to free the abductees, but
Pyongyang denies holding any South Koreans against their will.
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