Cold War Veterans Blog

Korea-Cold War Families of the Missing & National Alliance of POW/MIA Families:
President Bush: Make North Korea Return U.S. GIs, Not Just Japanese

Family Groups Want No More Concessions Without Accounting for U.S. POW/MIAs;

Current U.S. Push Only For Japanese Abductees, Not Americans

BELLEVUE, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the U.S. government marches toward improved relations with North Korea, it is ignoring one of its most important obligations – requiring North Korea to account for over 8,000 American Prisoners of War and Missing in Action from the Korean War (1950-3.) The leading groups representing family members of the captured and missing and concerned veterans and citizens are calling on the Bush Administration to demand answers from North Korea immediately -- before any more concessions are granted.

After the end of the war, the United States government demanded an accounting for hundreds of Americans reported captured by the enemy but never returned or accounted for, plus thousands of missing men whose fates are a total mystery. The North Koreans and their Chinese allies refused to provide any credible response. In 1957, a “Sense of the Congress” resolution was passed that stated an accounting and/or return of U.S. POWs and MIAs from Korea should be “a primary objective of the foreign policy of the United States.” In recent years, escapees from North Korea have described seeing men they believe were U.S. prisoners and North Korean officials have mentioned the presence of living “survivors” or “war criminals” from the conflict. Pentagon investigators have also uncovered evidence supporting wartime claims that U.S. prisoners were shipped from North Korea to secret prisons in China and the Soviet Union, from which they never returned. Just two weeks ago, a Chinese government report was revealed that admitted -- breaking 50 years of Chinese and North Korean denials -- Sgt. Richard Desautels was taken from North Korea to China, where Beijing now claims his remains cannot be found. (View fact sheet on US POW/MIAs in North Korea at www.nationalalliance.org/koreapowfacts.htm).

“The United States must not drop North Korea as a ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’ until it takes a significant first step in accounting for our lost heroes and agrees to a detailed program of accounting for American POWs and MIAs, starting with those captured alive but not returned at the end of the war and the ‘survivors’ and ‘war criminals’ mentioned by the North as remaining alive after the war,” said the National Alliance of Families for the Return of America’s Missing Servicemen (National Alliance of Families/NAF) and Korea-Cold War Families of the Missing.

“My father would be astonished to know North Korea has been dropped from ‘Trading with the Enemy’ status and is now poised to get other major diplomatic concessions with absolutely no requirement to account for him and his lost colleagues,” said Bill Sowles, son of Korean War POW/MIA SFC Lewis Sowles, who disappeared in North Korea during 1950.

Despite this, current negotiations with North Korea do not include U.S. POWs and MIAs. Instead, the U.S. has focused on accounting for Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea. Last week, President Bush stated: “The United States will never forget the abduction of Japanese citizens by the North Koreans. We will continue to closely cooperate and coordinate with Japan and press North Korea to swiftly resolve the abduction issue.”

The POW/MIA family groups strongly support an accounting for Japanese abductees, but call upon President Bush and Congress to honor America’s promise to its lost heroes, our Prisoners and Missing from the Korean War.

Contacts

Korea-Cold War Families of the Missing
Irene Mandra, 516-694-0989
imandra@optonline.net
or
National Alliance of POW/MIA Families
Lynn O’Shea, 718-846-4350
lynn@nationalalliance.org