This story was printed from TODAYonline 
Monday • October 13, 2008
A South Korean fisherman kidnapped by the North has died in prison after failed attempts to escape, an activist said Monday.
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.
Choi refused to disclose his sources saying only he had told Lim's family in the South about the death.
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.
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.
North Korea denies holding any South Koreans against their will, though some have managed to escape and come South.
Pyongyang has allowed a selected number of POWs or abductees to meet South Korean relatives in the North. — AFP