S Koreans-NK abduction

SEOUL, Nov. 2 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has officially recognized three fishing crewmen abducted by North Korea decades ago, Seoul's unification ministry said Monday, bringing the total number of government-recognized abductees since the end of the 1950-53 Korean War to 519.

The ministry added Jo Gi-won, Kim Yang-hun and Kim Dong-ho, who were forcibly taken to the North while aboard their fishing boat, the Daeyeong, near the South Korean border island of Yeonpyeong in 1973, to the list of post-war abductees eligible for "consolation" payments under a relevant law.

It decided to provide 81 million won (US$60,290) in consolation money to Jo's family members, while it is seeking to find the family members of the other abductees.

The Daeyeong had not been counted among the boats whose sailors were abducted by the North until Kim Byeong-do, one of its crewmembers, returned to South Korea in 2003, according to an association of post-war abductees' family members.

After the Armistice Agreement was signed to halt the Korean War in 1953, 3,838 South Koreans were taken to the North against their will. Of them, 3,319 have returned to the South, while an estimated 519 are thought to be held in the North.

The abductees include passengers and crew aboard a Korean Air plane hijacked in 1969, as well as fishermen who were abducted while operating near the inter-Korean maritime boundary.

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