"When the Korean War ended in 1953, about 50,000 South Korean prisoners of war were kept in the North. Many were forced into labouring jobs against their will. Some were killed. Now their children are fighting for recognition, writes BBC Korea's Subin Kim. No matter how hard she tries, Lee cannot recall what happened after three shots were fired by the executioners who killed her father and brother. It was three decades ago, when Lee was in her thirties. She does remember what happened just before. Security officers had dragged her to a stadium in a remote village in North Korea called Aoji. She was forced to sit under a wooden bridge, waiting for something - she knew not what - to happen. A crowd swelled and a truck pulled up, and two people were escorted off the truck. It was her father and brother. "They tied them to stakes, calling them traitors of the nation, spies and reactionaries," Lee told the BBC in an interview recently. That's the moment her memory falters. "I think I was screaming," she said. "My jaw was dislocated. A neighbour took me home to fix my jaw." Lee's father was one of about 50,000 former prisoners of war who were kept in the North at the end of the Korean war. The former prisoners were regrouped against their will into North Korean army units, and forced to work on reconstruction projects or in mining for the rest of their lives. When the armistice was signed, on 27 July 1953, the South Korean soldiers had assumed expected there would soon be a prisoner exchange and they would be sent home. But a month before the armistice, South Korean President Syngman Rhee unilaterally freed more than 25,000 North Korean prisoners, in order to sabotage the ceasefire. He wanted UN forces to help him reunite the country under South Korea. Many believe the move made the repatriation of South Korean prisoners more difficult. The North only sent back a small fraction of the prisoners it had taken. Soon South Korea largely forgot the men. In years since, three South Korean Presidents have met North Korean leaders, but the prisoners of war were never on the agenda." www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-53511646
