Francis Hong Yong-ho

Francis Hong Yong-ho (Korean: 홍용호 프란치스코; Hanja: 洪龍浩; born 12 October 1906 – death unknown, but acknowledged in June 2013) was a Catholic prelate in North Korea who was imprisoned by the communist regime of Kim Il Sung in 1949 and later disappeared.

[1][2] Eleven years later, he was appointed the Vicar Apostolic of Heijō and Titular Bishop of Auzia by Pope Pius XII on 24 March 1944.

The Pontifical Yearbook continues to describe as "missing" the man who was the bishop of Pyong-yang at the time, Monsignor Francis Hong Yong-ho, who today would be a hundred years old.

[6]The Vicariate Apostolic of Heijō changed its name to Pyongyang on 12 July 1950, which was elevated to the status of the Diocese of Pyongyang by Pope John XXIII on 10 March 1962, with Francis Hong Yong-ho named as the first bishop of the new diocese.

[7] After being listed as the ordinary of Pyongyang by the Pontifical Yearbook for decades, with the specification that he was to be considered "missing",[8] Hong Yong-ho's death was finally acknowledged by the Holy See in June 2013, although the actual date and place of death is unknown.