74 S. Korean POWs escaped from N. Korea in 15 years: report

SEOUL, Sept. 27 (Yonhap) -- A total of 74 South Korean prisoners of war (POWs) have escaped from North Korea in the last 15 years, a report submitted by the government to parliament said Saturday.

The report by the Unification Ministry said numbers started to increase after
2000, when the communist country started having trouble feeding its people, and
there was relatively easy movement between North Korea and China.
It said while an average of one to four POWs successfully crossed over into China
in the 1990s before arriving in South Korea, the numbers shot up to nine in 2000,
14 in 2004 and 15 in the following years before dipping to four in 2007.
Rep. Park Sun-young, who received the information from the government ahead of
the parliamentary audit, said it is a shame that past governments have not been
able to arrange a deal with the North to return the aged POWs.
The Kim Dae-jung and Roh Moo-hyun administrations had not pressed the issue out
of concern it could derail other negotiations and hinder rapprochement.
The prisoners were mostly held after the Korean War (1950-53), despite the
exchange of prisoners carried out by the two sides. Pyongyang has denied the
existence of POWs in the past, despite asking for the return of spies and agents
held in South Korean prisons.