Seoul finds it 'hard to confirm' abduction of South Korean reporter to North

By Kang Aa-young, Park Si-soo

It is hard to confirm a lawmaker's claim that Pyongyang agents abducted a North Korean defector-turned-journalist last year and are holding him in a dungeon, South Korea's unification ministry said Monday.

A ministry spokesman told The Korea Times that the journalist, surnamed Choi, was confirmed to have vanished, but it was unclear if he was abducted to the North.

Rep. Ha Tae-keung of the conservative Bareun Party claimed last week that Choi, who worked for Daily NK, a Seoul-based internet news outlet specializing in North Korea, had been abducted from the China-North Korea border in May last year.

Choi's wife claims her husband vanished after he went to the border area on a business trip, but did not say if she thought he had been abducted.

If the lawmaker's claim is true, seven South Koreans are being held in the North, not six as the ministry has claimed.