Sergeant Ahn went to the North, what's the truth?
On the 31st, SBS 'The Tale of Biting the Tail' (hereinafter 'Kkokomu'), with the subtitle 'Aladdin Lamp and Peanuts', lit up the day of Sgt. Ahn Hak-su, who disappeared after participating in the Vietnam War.
September 16, 1966 was the day the second son of Oh Brothers, Haksu, returned from the Vietnam War.
After two years of military service, he finally returned to his family.
In response, Hak-su's father, the principal, and his family waited for him at Hak-su's maternal grandmother's house in Seoul.
However, the son who had decided to return did not return, and the Ministry of National Defense did not deliver any news, saying, "No news is good news."
Six months have passed without him returning, and his younger brother Yong-su hears a shocking message on the radio, which he heard at the hands of an aunt at a stationery store.
The long-awaited older brother Hak-su heard a broadcast from South Korea that he had fled to North Korea because he hated South Korea.
At this, the house was turned upside down.
However, even before the house was quiet, someone came to Yongsu and his family.
The security guard, who plays a similar role to the Central Intelligence Agency in the military, took Hak-su's family and started interrogation.
He suspected that his family might engage in espionage because of the North Korean studies in February.
In response, the security guards took Yongsu and his family from time to time to interrogate and use violence.
Adults spun, tortured, and pulled a pistol trigger to scare the 16-year-old child.
And other families had to go through terrible things.
Their argument was this:
"Since Ahn Hak-soo defected to North Korea, you are potential spies. You are a red-haired family."
Soon, the truth was revealed, and Yongsu was subjected to unreasonable violence at school, and his father, who was the school principal, was cut off from school as well as kicked out of his residence, and his family had to move to Daldongnae.
And the security guard's inspection lasted until 1993, a whopping 26 years.
Until such time passed, the family did not understand Sergeant Ahn's defection to North Korea.
In particular, the parents believed in their son Hak-soo and said that he would never do that, and wanted to see his face at least once before he died.
However, the parents passed away one after another in 2001, not knowing whether their son was alive or not.
And before his death, his father passed on his belongings and wills to his son Yongsu.
The belongings he left behind were the materials he had collected about Mr.
In addition, he left a will to Yongsu, saying, "I can't close my eyes because I'm sad. You must solve it too."
Following his father's wishes, Yongsu continued to file civil complaints with the Ministry of National Defense and the Blue House, and appealed to newspapers and broadcasting companies for injustice.
Eight years have passed and one day, a phone call comes in.
A reporter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that there is a declassified Foreign Ministry document that he should check with him.
The confidential document identified by Yongsu contained the contents of conversations the Ministry of Foreign Affairs exchanged with the Ministry of National Defense and the Blue House.
And the content was that Yongsu's older brother, Sgt. Ahn Haksu, was a prisoner of war.
He disappeared on a business trip a week before returning home, and was attacked by the Viet Cong. Judging from various circumstances, it was speculated that Mr. Haksu was forcibly abducted rather than defected to North Korea.
Also, in 1976, a defector's testimony revealed that Ahn Hak-su was shot and killed while trying to escape from North Korea, and this fact was also revealed by the government.
And despite knowing all these facts, after the death of Mr. Hak-soo, he inspected and tortured his family for 17 years.
Then why did the government hide the fact that he was a prisoner of war?
After the victory in the Vietnam War, the government, which had advertised that there were no Korean prisoners of war, showed a cold reaction to the late return of POW Yoo Jong-cheol.
Although there was strong opposition to the dispatch of troops to Vietnam, the government's purpose for the dispatch was money.
320,000 troops were dispatched for eight and a half years to the U.S. proposal to provide money for economic development if they sent South Korean troops, and the amount of money they earned was a whopping $5 billion.
This money was equivalent to the amount of money earned by exporting for 50 years.
According to a telegram sent by the US ambassador to Korea to the US State Department at the time, the phrase "The Korean government considers the 50,000 South Korean soldiers stationed in Vietnam to be Aladdin's lamp to make their dreams come true" was revealed.
The Korean government was holding the Korean military hostage and making a wish to the United States.
Accordingly, the government gradually expanded the dispatch of troops, which had been limited to combat units, to civilians as well.
And it was through their sacrifice that the miracle of the Han River was accomplished.
At that time, it was revealed that the daily wage of a dispatched private soldier was less than a quarter of that of the US military, and that it was far insufficient compared to the wages of the Thai and Philippine military.
At that time, the special adviser to the president of the United States even described to the president, "The total cost of materials and funds the United States pays to the South Korean military is about the price of peanuts compared to the amount invested in a similar number of Americans."
Even if it was a choice that was unavoidable because of poverty, if the young people who fought for the country went missing and were taken prisoner, it would be the duty of the state to rescue them somehow, and if that doesn't work, we should make an effort to find them. Rather, he declared that there were no prisoners of war.
In particular, it was revealed that the missing soldier was killed ten days after his disappearance without confirming the body.
It was the same with Private Yoo, who was released after being a prisoner of war after a year.
The military said his remains were sent to Korea and even buried in a national cemetery.
But a year later, he came back alive.
The story of his return was also surprising.
His return was due to the Viet Cong's demand for prisoner exchange, not our government's request.
And the government treated him as a resurrection after he returned.
Countries that did not want to admit their faults created a ridiculous situation to the end.
And the government has not made a single apology so far.
They were just trying to cover and erase everything in order to avoid the resentment and criticism of the people.
On the other hand, the United States never gives up its soldiers.
The United States has a department dedicated to prisoners of war, and no matter how much time passes, they do not give up.
Their motto is "until they come home".
The soldiers who went to war do not give up even after decades until they return home.
Two years ago, a new submarine robot was used to find the body of an American soldier in the seas of Vietnam.
After 53 years, the unbelievable return to the home awaited by their family has occurred, and they are continuing their efforts to find the soldiers who have not returned home even at this moment.
As someone who went out for the country, watching and looking for them until they return would be the minimum courtesy that the country should have for its citizens, but our country was not even following that courtesy.
Haksu's younger brother Yongsu filed a complaint with all the evidence he had secured.
And finally, the answer that came back was, "Sergeant Ahn Hak-su is not a defector, but our military that was taken to the North."
This answer came 43 years after he disappeared in Vietnam.
Not only Sergeant Ahn Hak-soo, but 17 of our youth who have not yet returned home after the Vietnam War.
As the mothers of those young people, the Republic of Korea should not stop trying to find her sons until the day they return home.
That is the duty of the mother country, the mother country.
(SBS Entertainment News Editor Kim Hyo-jung)