[3] Interest in the issue has been renewed since 1994, when Cho Chang-ho, a former South Korean soldier presumed to have been killed in the war, escaped from North Korea.
There have also been reports that several hundred US prisoners of war may not have been returned by North Korea,[4][5] but the vast majority of unaccounted POWs are South Koreans.
Nominally, both the communist and the United Nations forces were committed to the terms of the 1949 Third Geneva Convention, regarding the treatment of POWs.
[8] When negotiations for POW exchanges began in 1951, the UN Command estimated that 88,000 South Korean soldiers were missing in action (MIA).
The communists insisted that many POWs had been killed in UN air raids and died of disease and that all captives who had recognized their crimes of "participating in imperialists' war" had been released at the front and allowed to return to their original army or home town.
The communists claimed that all of the former POWs who were serving in their forces had volunteered to do so and refuted that as "a conspiracy to carry away more than one hundred thousand soldiers from the People's Army.
Many other South Korean leaders had also been unhappy with the ceasefire negotiations in general, as well as the issue of anti-communist POWs in UN custody.
However, the fact that the communists had begun with such a small list of POWs is an indication that they had little intention of returning many of the South Koreans.
[6] The UN and the communists finally signed the Armistice Agreement on July 27, 1953, a little over a month after the release of the anti-communist POWs by South Korea.
On September 17, 1996, the New York Times reported the possible presence of American POWs in North Korea, citing recently declassified documents.
The documents show that the U.S. Defense Department claimed to know in December 1953 that "more than 900 American troops were alive at the end of the war but were never released by the North Koreans."
On July 13 of 1952, the Chinese forces changed their policy and committed to the Geneva Conventions - and demanded full repatriation of its own POWs according to Article 118.
Lieutenant Cho Chang-ho, a former South Korean artillery officer who escaped from North Korea in 1994, testified before the U.S. Congress on April 27, 2006.
In 1952 he had been caught trying to escape back to South Korean lines and was sentenced by court martial to thirteen years in prison.
UN and South Korean POWs gathered together in November 1952 at the Pyuoktong Camp and competed in many athletic matches, including softball and sack races.
[22] The discrimination extended to the children of POWs who were restricted in their careers, barred from membership in the Workers' Party of Korea, college admissions and military service.
[26] Contrary to the Seoul government's expectation, North Korea only enraged liberals and conservatives alike in the South Korean legislature when it demanded billions of dollars in compensation for alleged atrocities against the repatriated agents.
During the second inter-Korea summit of October 2007, President Roh Moo-hyun received no response from his North Korean counterpart, Kim Jong-il.
[28] Human rights groups in Korea and other countries have been unhappy with the two previous Presidents, Kim Dae Jung and Roh Moo Hyun with regards to the POW issue.
Both the Kim and Roh governments were criticized for being excessively cautious about provoking the North Koreans and "lacking determination" in getting back the POWs.
[31] It has also created an agency within South Korea's Unification Ministry whose task is to deal with North Korean human rights and POW related issues.
[37] Yoo Young-bok, a POW who escaped from North Korea in 2000, first published his memoirs in 2010, entitled Under Starry Nights in Hell.
In 2012 his memoirs were translated into English under the title Tears of Blood: A Korean POW's Fight for Freedom, Family, and Justice.
This adds up to a significant payment and is much higher than the assistance that typical North Korean refugees receive when they successfully reach South Korea.
Private "brokers" are also aware of such policies and actively seek former POWs in North Korea and help arrange their escape for hefty fees.
However, many suffer from health problems due to many years of hard labor and depression from concern for their family members who are still in North Korea.