POW: ‘North Korea was never my home’

At the age of 93, former South Korean soldier Lee Dae-bong can still very well remember his life as a prisoner of war in North Korea.

For the first years of his life in captivity, Lee was forced to work in North Hamgyong’s Aoji coal mine. He was captured one month before the ceasefire at the Kyungbu front.

“I was moved from the central front to Kwangdong, Pyongyang. Initially, 13 of us were captured at the Kyungbu front. Around July, August, or September, we were transported to the Kwangdong prison camp in Pyeongyang,” Lee told select foreign press in an interview at the War Memorial of Korea in Seoul.

The captured South Korean troops initially thought they would be sent back home since the ceasefire had occurred. As American prisoners of war were repatriated, South Koreans were moved in a train freight heading north. They were forced to work in the mine for the next three years. Half the time they were receiving a cultural education from the North Korean regime.

Lee was released in 1956 but remained in North Korea. He married and had a son. His wife passed away and his son died working in a coal mine. After their deaths, Lee felt no reason to remain in North Korea.

Read more at: https://tribune.net.ph/2024/08/07/pow-north-korea-was-never-my-home