Time is GMT + 8 hours Posted: 13-Oct-2008 22:42 hrs
South Korean fishermen measure the depth of the Imjin river in Paju, which flows along the heavily fortified border with North Korea. A South Korean fisherman -- kidnapped by North Korea in 1987 -- has died in prison after failed attempts to escape.
A South Korean fisherman kidnapped by the North has died in prison after failed attempts to escape, an activist said Monday.
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Lim Kook-Jae, abducted in 1987 in the Yellow Sea, died recently at one of the North's political camps in the northeastern port of Chongjin, said Choi Sung-Yong, who arranges the rescue of prisoners of war and abductees.
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Choi refused to disclose his sources saying only he had told Lim's family in the South about the death.
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Lim, 54, was sent to the camp in 2005 after he was arrested for attempting to escape the communist country three times, the activist told reporters.
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By official count 494 South Koreans, mostly fishermen, were seized in the Cold War decades following the 1950-53 Korean conflict. More than 500 prisoners of war were never sent home in 1953.
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North Korea denies holding any South Koreans against their will, though some have managed to escape and come South.
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Pyongyang has allowed a selected number of POWs or abductees to meet South Korean relatives in the North. — AFP
