Families to call for repatriation of 11 S. Koreans abducted by North

Families of 11 Korean citizens abducted by North Korea in 1969 plan to visit the North's representatives to the United Nations in Switzerland to raise pressure on the country to repatriate the abductees, a representative for the families said Monday.

The 11 were aboard a Korean Air service hijacked by the North.

The group representative said family members will fly to Geneva on Monday for a seven-day trip aimed at pressing the North to repatriate the 11, including the delivery of a letter to the North's representatives calling for the repatriation.

"On Nov. 8, we will try delivering the letter to the North Korean representatives," said Hwang In-cheol, who leads the families of the abductees.

The group will also visit the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights as part of efforts to secure international support for the repatriation project, Hwang said.

Their trip also includes giving testimony at a Japan-organized symposium on abductees by the North, and a meeting with David Alton, a member of the British Parliament active in North Korean matters, he said.

A Korean Air domestic flight heading to Gimpo was hijacked on Dec. 11, 1969, by an agent from the North posing as a local passenger. Of the four crew members and 46 passengers aboard, 39 were sent back 66 days later, but the crew members and seven passengers were detained in the North.

In response to the South Korean government's call to verify the survival of the 11 abductees in 2006, the North said that was impossible.

Many South Koreans and Japaneses are believed to have been abducted and to remain confined in the North after the 1950-53 Korean War left the Korean Peninsula divided.

The abductions are believed to have been plotted as part the North's intelligence activities, including spy training, as well as a political campaign against the South and Japan. (Yonhap)