After decades behind bars, N. Korea loyalists still seek repatriation

Ahn Hak-sop, center, an unconverted long-term prisoner demanding repatriation to North Korea, holds up a North Korean flag at Tongil Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Aug. 20. Yonhap

Last month, 95-year-old Ahn Hak-sop, leaning on others for support, made slow steps across the southern end of Tongil Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, with a clear goal: to reach North Korea.

“I want my body to be buried in the land of a truly independent nation after I die,” Ahn said. “The longing to return home has been unbearably strong, because my ideals, way of life and actions are rooted in North Korea.”

Ahn is one of six former North Korean agents and South Korean leftist activists who spent decades in the South’s prisons without renouncing their communist beliefs who recently asked the Ministry of Unification to send them to North Korea.

Of the six, two were born in the North, while Ahn and the rest were born in the South and imprisoned for leftist activities or siding with North Korean forces.

Ahn Hak-sop, center, an unconverted long-term prisoner demanding repatriation to North Korea, speaks with police officers at Tongil Bridge in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, Aug. 20. Yonhap

Ahn’s story highlights how the wounds of Korea’s division remain deeply personal more than seven decades after the 1953 armistice, reflecting the enduring pain of those separated by history. It also underscores a sobering reality: The generation that lived through the conflict is rapidly passing, leaving fewer voices to testify to its unresolved legacy.

Born in 1930 near the border with North Korea on Ganghwa Island in Gyeonggi Province, Ahn served as a squad leader in the Korean People’s Army during the Korean War and was captured in 1953.

What followed was a life sentence in South Korea, where he served 42 years and four months, enduring torture and pressure to abandon his beliefs before being released in 1995 under a Liberation Day pardon.

Ahn Hak-sop, an unconverted long-term prisoner demanding repatriation to North Korea, waits in a car before attending a press conference in front of the Government Complex Seoul, Aug. 30. Yonhap

South Korea’s campaign to convert political dissidents grew more violent in 1973, when the Ministry of Justice formed a task force of intelligence, police agents and even violent inmates to pressure them to abandon their beliefs.

The campaign quickly reduced their numbers, from around 400 in late 1973 to just over 200 by 1975, with two-thirds giving in during the 1970s.

In 1975, South Korea enacted a law allowing the government to place released unconverted long-term prisoners in protective custody facilities when deemed necessary. Some were released in 1989, when the law was replaced, and around 120 were freed at that time or later through presidential pardons.

Among them was the late Kim Sun-myung, a former North Korean soldier who spent 43 years and 10 months in prison, from 1951 to 1995, making him the world’s longest-serving prisoner at the time.

A breakthrough came in September 2000, when 63 unconverted long-term prisoners were sent North under the June 15 Inter-Korean Summit agreement. Most were agents, guerrillas or soldiers, and more than 80 percent were over 70 years old.

Unconverted long-term prisoners walk from the House of Freedom toward the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission conference room in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, in this September 2000 file photo. Korea Times file

Since then, there have been more requests from former prisoners leading to government review, but no further transfers.

Ahn refused to join the 2000 group, saying he would “continue the struggle until U.S. troops leave South Korea.” But this year, for the first time, he voiced his wish to return to the North.

The Ministry of Unification is reviewing a request by Ahn and five other unconverted prisoners asking the government to send them to North Korea.

“We recognize that time is short due to their age,” the ministry said last month. “We offer our deepest sympathy to Ahn for the pain he has endured as a result of Korea’s division.”

Shim Ju-yi, secretary general of the Yangsimsu Support Association (“yangsimsu” meaning “prisoners of conscience”), which supports unconverted long-term prisoners, told The Korea Times that the ministry held one-on-one interviews with them last month to confirm their intentions.

“At that meeting, all six expressed a clear wish to go to North Korea. But we haven’t received any decision yet,” Shim said.

Shim said Ahn has been the most vocal among the six, staging protests almost every Saturday, mostly in front of the Seoul Government Complex. She added that the six have grown more hopeful since the change in administration this year, with the conservative government stepping down and President Lee Jae Myung taking office.

“Even without clear prospects, they have not given up,” Shim said.