A South Korean army officer escaped from North Korea after 43 years in captivity. Seoul's intelligence agency said Monday that he was the first POW to escape the communist North since the Korean War ended.
Lt. Cho Chang-ho, 64, was found semiconscious in a small wooden boat when a South Korean fishing vessel rescued him near the country's west coast Sunday, the National Security Planning agency said.Cho was captured by Chinese troops in 1951 while serving in the Korean War, the agency said.
Several relatives met Cho and hugged him, crying in disbelief. The Defense Ministry said Cho had been listed as killed in action.
After his rescue, Cho was hospitalized with pneumonia and an apparent brain hemorrhage, officials said. He had trouble speaking during an interview with South Korean reporters.
South Korea says the North never returned more than 40,000 South Korean prisoners from the war that started in 1950. The North says all POWs went home in 1953. About 8,100 Americans are listed as unaccounted for from the war, in which the United States sided with South Korea.
In response to a reporter's question about North Korea's heir apparent, Kim Jong Il, Cho described the prevailing North Korean public feeling as one in which North Koreans regard him as the real successor to his late father.
Cho was quoted as saying he decided to escape in 1992. Although he said the escape took months, it remains unclear how he fled.
"I was so hungry that I often had to steal food," Cho said.
Cho said he crossed the Yalu River on the North Korean-Chinese border on Oct. 3 and escaped into China. There, Cho said, Koreans who live in China helped him flee aboard a Chinese fishing boat.