The National Memorial for Abductees during the Korean War in Imjingang, Paju City, is a little-known institution dedicated to the at least 95,456 South Korean civilians who were taken against their will to North Korea during the hostilities (1950-1953) and were never heard of again.

Most of them were educated men, civil servants, businesspeople, writers, teachers, christian pastors, etc. The North seemed to have a very clear idea of which people it wanted to abduct in order to help the reconstruction of the country after the war, or to eliminate political enemies.

At the end of the conflict, prisoners of war were exchanged, but civilian abductees were excluded. Little has been done since to find them alive or to repatriate their ashes. Pyongyang has always flatly denied abducting civilians, claiming that the people who disappeared in the South had voluntarily defected to North Korea.

Another tragedy within the tragedy…

“The Road of Return”, the monument in front of the main building, was erected to destigmatize the abductees and their families and relieve their more than seven decades-long agony.

North Korean abductions did not stop with the end of the war.

Between 1953 until nowadays, North Korea has abducted 3,795 South Koreans and at least 17 Japanese citizens, according to official figures.

One of the most famous cases was the kidnapping of South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee and her film director and husband Shin Sang-ok in 1978 in Hong Kong, on orders of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il who wanted to bring them to Pyongyang to improve the North Korean film industry. While detained in North Korea, Shin made the famous monster movie Pulgasari in 1985. The couple escaped in 1986 while on a filming assignment in Austria.

As for the Japanese, 17 nationals are officially recognized by their government as abduction victims, but there may have been hundreds of others. Some were abducted to teach Japanese language and culture at North Korean spy schools (the youngest, Yokota Megumi, was only 13 when she was taken to North Korea by secret agents while having a walk on the beach in her native Sado Island). Others were nabbed for the purpose of stealing their identities. Five of the abductees were returned to Japan in 2002.