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| Hwang Won, center, one of the victims of the 1969 Korean Air flight hijacking by North Korea, smiles with his son, Hwang Won Jr. (Hwang In-cheol), left, and his niece in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, in this photo taken in March 1969. Courtesy of Hwang Won Jr. and Freedom Speakers International |
Although 50 years have passed, Hwang Won Jr.'s search for father isn't over yet
By Jung Min-ho
When a North Korean agent hijacked the Korean Air flight carrying his father and forced the pilot to land in North Korea in December 1969, Hwang In-cheol, who was just two years old at the time, did not know how the incident would later shape his own life.
After international outcry, Pyongyang promised to repatriate all 50 passengers and crew on Feb. 4, 1970, only to break its promise by sending back 39 of them. His father, a producer for broadcaster MBC, was not on that list.
The tragedy forced his family into misery. Yet, despite all the tears and sleepless nights, life went on: Hwang went to school, got a job and tied the knot with a women he loved. Slowly, he was accepting the reality that he would not be able to meet his father again.
But one day, he saw his two-year-old daughter and imagined himself not being able to meet her again ― knowing that she is waiting for his return every day. Hwang broke down in tears. It was the first time he truly understood the depth of his father's sorrow. "No," he thought. "I will never accept that."
"For the first time, I saw a poor young man wailing in grief because he misses his children so much," Hwang, now 54, said in a recent interview with The Korea Times. "That was when I decided to try I all could for his return."
This year, he started calling himself with a different English name ― Hwang Won Jr. ― to raise awareness of the horrendous crime that has never been brought to justice.
Over the past decades, the families of the victims, represented by the 1969 KAL Abductees' Families Association, have been trying hard to bring their loved ones home, reaching out to the government and international organizations for help.
But Sung Kyung-hui, a flight attendant, was the only victim given an opportunity to meet her family during an inter-Korean reunion event in 2001. The North has claimed ― most recently in a letter to the Office of the U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2020 ― that the 11 people voluntarily decided to settle down there and no one was held against their will.
Hwang knows it is a lie ― from a regime founded on countless lies and broken promises.
After years of fruitless endeavor, all but Hwang have left the family association; some gave it up, others found a new spouse.
Hwang said one of his biggest regrets as a member and now the head of the organization is that he trusted the government and politicians too much.
"All the members kept a low profile for years, thinking that raising their voice would not be good for their families in North Korea. That's what South Korean officials told us," he said.
His mother and the wife of Hwang Won died last year at the age of 84. She dearly missed his husband and, from time to time, told her children that she wanted to meet him once again before the day she dies. Her mother, Hwang Won Jr. said, had never been able to overcome her trauma and stayed single all her life.
When he was a little child, he was told that his father would return home on Christmas Day after a long business trip. So every year, he waited for Christmas Day to come. More than 50 years have passed since ― and he is still waiting and hoping for the day to come.
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