South Korean abductee escapes North after 31 years

SEOUL, Jan 5 (Reuters) A South Korean fisherman believed to have been abducted by North Korea 31 years ago has fled from the communist state to China and is trying to return to the South, a Seoul-based group which helps abductees said.

''He's coming home 100 per cent,'' said Choi Sung-yong, president of the Representatives of the Abductees' Family Union, the group which arranged the escape of 67-year-old Choi Wook-il yesterday.

Choi, a crew member on the 33-man fishing boat Chunwang abducted by the North in 1975, was one of hundreds of people taken against their will following the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, the South Korean group said.

Escapes from the North are infrequent because of the severe and sometimes deadly punishment abductees face if they fail to make it to freedom, humanitarian groups say.

Choi had crossed the Tumen River separating North Korea and China on December. 25 and contacted South Korean diplomats there with a request to go home, the group said. He has been reunited with his wife in China.

Seoul's Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the case. It has a policy of not commenting on South Korean abductees and North Korean refugees fleeing the North until they reach safety.

After years of silence on the matter, South Korea began pressing the North in 2006 on the 1,000-plus abductees and prisoners of war said to have been taken to the North.

North Korea has said 10 South Korean prisoners of war and 11 civilian abductees were alive in the North, an unprecedented admission although the figures fall far below Seoul's estimate.

Abductions are also a major thorn in ties between North Korea and Japan, which believes at least 17 of its people were kidnapped. The North has admitted to having abducted 13.

REUTERS SRS PM0415