By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

The government Wednesday restored the honor of one of its soldiers long classified as a defector to North Korea during the Vietnam War.

The restoration came after months of review by a fact-finding panel of the Ministry of National Defense.

The panel concluded that Sgt. Park Seong-ryeol was captured during the war and sent to North Korea against his will, ministry officials said.

Park is believed to have been abducted while on patrol in Vietnam in 1965, they said, adding that a considerable ransom was offered for South Korean soldiers at the time.

Park, who was heard making anti-South Korea tirades on North Korean radio in 1967, was one of hundreds of thousands of South Korean soldiers who fought in Vietnam between 1964 and 1973 as part of a U.S. operation.

The panel said Park is believed to have been forced to go on radio, so he will be reclassified as a prisoner of war (POW) rather than a defector to the North.

"Looking into the circumstances at the time of the possible abduction, we could not find any motive under which he could have defected (to the North)," a ministry official said.

"Should Park return, he will be treated accordingly. If his remains return, they will be buried at a national cemetery," the official said.

It's not clear whether Park is still alive, he said.

In July, the ministry concluded that Army Staff Sergeant Ahn Hak-soo, also considered a deserter and defector for decades, had in fact been kidnapped by North Vietnamese forces and sent to North Korea.

Nearly 5,000 South Korean soldiers died and about 10,000 others were wounded in the Vietnam War.

The government estimates some 560 South Korean POWs are still alive in the North. Pyongyang, however, denies holding any South Korean against his or her will.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr