Korean War prisoner escapes to South Korea after 43 years!

by Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid

Accuracy In Media

November 10, 1994

HEADLINE: POW HELD PRISONER 43 YEARS RETURNS HOME

That is a headline you should have seen on the front page of your newspaper on October 25, but you didn't. You should have seen the story on the evening television news programs, but the only one that mentioned it was the CBS Evening News. ABC, NBC and CNN didn't think it worth reporting that a South Korean Army lieutenant who was captured by the Communists and sent to a prison camp in North Korea in 1951 had managed to escape and make his way home.

Why do we think this story is so important? For years we have been stymied in our efforts to get our government to demand that North Korea, Vietnam and Laos free the Americans they continued to hold prisoner after the wars in those countries ended. The government has refused to accept all the evidence that live American prisoners have been held in these countries all these years, and many people have bought the argument that any prisoners we left behind have long since died. They have found it hard to believe that any of them could have survived the mistreatment and harsh conditions to which the POWs were subjected.

And now the South Korean lieutenant, Cho Chang-ho, has destroyed this argument. Chang was captured in 1951 and sent to a prison camp in North Korea. He was held there for nearly 13 years before being sent to work in the coal mines. He was forced to work in the mines up to 18 hours a day. There was no Korean OSHA to enforce healthful working conditions. Cho developed chronic lung disease, and in 1977 he was no longer able to continue the arduous work in the mines.

Somehow he survived another 17 years after that. Despite the fact that he was old and sick he was determined to return to his home in South Korea. We don't yet know the full story, but we do know that as old and sick as he was, Cho managed to flee across the Yalu River into China. There friendly Koreans put him on a smugglers boat and he finally found his way home and was reunited with his family last month.

Lt. Cho was one of some 40,000 South Koreans who were missing and never accounted for at the end of the Korean War. There were 8,177 American servicemen in the same status. We know that at least 389 of them were known to have been captured alive. If Cho could survive the harsh life that he endured for 43 years, many, if not most of these Americans could also have survived.

Last year a document was found in the Russian archives that confirmed other evidence that Vietnam continued to hold over 700 American prisoners after the end of the Vietnam War. That was less than 20 years ago. If POWs could survive 43 years in North Korea, they could surely survive 20 years in Vietnam. All Americans of conscience should now demand that President Clinton carry out his promises to the POW/MIA families by insisting that North Korea and Vietnam free all the POWs they are holding immediately. He has paid these countries millions of dollars for bones. He should be demanding the men.