"You misspelled one letter"... 120,000 missing Korean War missing

<Reporter Kim Ji-wook>

This year marks the 70th anniversary of the end of the Korean War.

There are about 120,000 remains of the dead who have yet to return to their families.

In October of last year, Ji Seok-jin, who found his brother after 72 years, learned that he had not been able to find his brother due to a mistake by the Ministry of National Defense.

Let's find out what the story really is.

In 1949, three older brothers who were much older than Ji, who was a 6-year-old boy, enlisted in the military side by side.

The Korean War broke out right away and no one returned home.

The first brother became a corpse and was buried at the National Cemetery, and the second and third brothers were in a situation where even the life and death were unknown. Mother and Mr. Ji tried their best to find the two brothers, but only time passed.

[Ji Seok-jin/Families of Korean War dead: (My mother) went to see a lot of fortune-telling.

Is she alive or dead?]

[Yoo Seon-hee / Ji Seok-jin's wife: She went to the Military Manpower Administration once.

But they said that it wasn't true.

The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs also asked, 'Is such a person on the list of the dead?', but they said no.]

Then, in October of last year, Mr. Ji, who applied for the Korean War Remains Search Project of the Ministry of National Defense Remains Investigation Team, heard shocking news.

Enlarge Image

There was a name written as 'Shim Seok-min' in the list of the people who were buried at the National Cemetery, and this person is the second older brother, Ji Seok-min.

[Han Yong-rak/Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do Uncheon Shinbong Dong Captain: Seok-min Ji did not come out when I hit it with a certain name.

He heard the story (an elder asked him to search for 'sim') and entered it with the concept of changing it once, and (name) came out.

It was so absurd.

I did n't think it would come out like this easily.]

After the war, when the name was transferred from the National Cemetery to handwriting, the Chinese character 'Ji' was mistakenly written as 'Sim', which looks similar.

[Ji Seok-jin/Families of the Korean War dead: So, the amazing thing is that I'm going crazy because of it.

This is not a crazy thing.]

Mr. Ji went to the National Cemetery and after conducting a DNA test and a family register comparison procedure, he confirmed that his brother was buried under the name of 'Sim' Seok-min.

[Ji Seok-jin/Families of the Korean War dead: I'm so sorry, it's ridiculous.

It's not that I was alone for 70 years because of the state's mistake.] The National

Cemetery apologized and replaced the headstone.

It is a newly erected tombstone.

Mr. Ji's older brother was buried here for 70 years from 1954 with a changed surname.

In this way, his second brother was barely found, but his heart is dejected as to what the story was about the third brother who has not yet been found.

[Ji Seok-jin/Families of Korean War casualties: I have been here alone for 72 years.

Didn't her mother not know that (first) and only went to her older brother?

At that time, why don't you shout, 'Mother, I'm here'.]

(Video coverage: Choi Dae-woong, Video editing: Shin Se-eun)

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<Anchor>

Reporter Kim Ji-wook, who covered this story, is with me.

[Reporter Kim Ji-wook: In the process of writing various lists by hand, inaccurate records are being created like this.

Even in the case of Mr. Ji, each list has a different name.

The report on the burial and cremation list says 'Shim Seong-min' in Korean, and in the list of war dead, 'Ji Seok-min' in Chinese characters, that's the correct name.

However, it is also written in parentheses and 'sim'.

Also, 'Shim Seok-min' is written in Korean on the saddle list of the National Cemetery.

All of these data are now computerized and used to find the remains of missing persons, but they are of no help if the original data itself is wrong.

In the past, there are many cases where the name called at home, the name on the family register, and the name on the medical record are different, so there is confusion.]

[Reporter Kim Ji-wook: Of the approximately 160,000 dead and missing during the Korean War, 75%, or 120,000, have yet to find their whereabouts.

The Ministry of National Defense has been carrying out the remains excavation project since 2000, excavating the remains of 13,000 people, but only about 200 people have found their families.

As it has been confirmed that there is confusion due to incorrect information, the Ministry of National Defense needs to actively find some data errors through a complete enumeration, etc., and for the bereaved family, it would be helpful to substitute similar Chinese characters or names, as in the case of Ji Seok-min. You can.]

(Video coverage: Choi Dae-woong, video editing: Shin Se-eun)