At 95 years old, Former North Korean soldier Ahn Hak-sop assures that he will try again to enter North Korea through a third country, just two months after his first attempt, in which It was blocked by South Korean soldiers, where He spent more than 40 years in prison.
«I will try to achieve it in another way. There is a way to cross through China or Russia,» Ahn said the day before, during a visit to the church where he lives with Pastor Lee Jeok, located in Yonggang, a village monitored by the South Korean Army due to its proximity to North Korea.
Ahn, who served in the North Korean Army during the Korean War (1950-1953), He spent more than forty years in prison in the South under charges of espionage. It is one of the six «unconverted» former prisoners who remain openly loyal to the North Korean regime and request the South Korean Government to be sent to the North.
Although he knew that crossing from the South would be practically impossible, his attempt in August went around the world. The nonagenarian tried in the middle of summer to cross the Demilitarized Zone, which separates the two Koreas, leaning on a cane and accompanied by activists, until he was stopped by South Korean soldiers.
«I don’t trust in waiting, I trust in myself. I will look for another way,» said Ahn, who appears surprisingly lucid and energetic for his age, about his next attempt.
Both Koreas are still technically at warsince the conflict ended with the signing of an armistice, and not a peace treaty. Inter-Korean communication channels remain cut off since 2022, while Pyongyang has repeatedly rejected Seoul’s calls to reopen dialogue.
Nightmares of war and prison
The man was born in what is now South Korea, but decided to fight for the North and served as an intelligence officer. He was captured three months before the conflict ended and isolated and tortured for years.
«I lost my teeth, my toenails. Sometimes they would submerge my head in water. When I talk about that I can’t sleep that night,» she said through tears, until she asked to interrupt the topic. «I held on because, when I woke up after the beatings, I saw it as a victory. If I gave in, I would be an animal.»
In the early 2000s a South Korean government panel linked nearly 80 deaths to torture conversion programs during South Korea’s dictatorial periods. Ahn commented that several of his companions committed suicide.
He served in the North Korean Army during the Korean War (1950-1953) and spent more than forty years in prison in the South (Committee for the Repatriation of Ahn Hak-sop)In prison «one of my companions suddenly told me ‘I’m going to kill myself’,» says Ahn, moved. «He told me it was better to do it now that he was strong instead of giving in to the torture and becoming a ‘dog’.»
Ahn confesses that his last wish is to return to the North to fulfill a mission. «I want to look for the relatives of my comrades who died and tell them their last words,» he says.
The man attacks what he considers the hypocrisy of South Korean capitalism: «it has only made the rich richer.»
He is one of six «unconverted» former prisoners who remain openly loyal to the North Korean regime (AP).Although North Korea is considered one of the most secretive and repressive countries in the world, Ahn defends the North Korean socialist state and attacks the «neocolonialism» of the United States over South Korea, which he compares to that of Japan in Korea.
The scene accompanies his feelings: at the entrance to the room where he receives EFEthere is a mat with the phrase «Yankees out»while the walls are covered in violent anti-Washington paper mache art figures created by Jeong Mi-sook, the pastor’s late wife, whom Ahn considers his adopted daughter.
Jeong died of cancer in September, weeks after Ahn tried to cross into the North.
Lost opportunity and new hope
«I was born in a colonized country and I don’t want to die in a colonized country,» he said. «If the American troops leave, I would be willing to continue living in the South.»
Ahn also remembers when in 2000 he was offered to go to the North with other unconverted former prisoners, but he rejected it because he had to continue fighting against the American presence.
«I don’t regret it. It was my will,» he said, explaining that now that he is old he wants to die in the North or at least have his ashes buried there.
The Demilitarized Zone that separates the two Koreas (AP).The Ministry of Unification confirmed on Thursday that Ahn’s case is being reviewed, addressing his request in August. South Korean authorities said they are seeking the repatriation of unconverted prisoners for humanitarian and compassionate reasons, but they also need a response from North Korea, which has never commented on their case.
EFE Agency.
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