VOA慢速英语2017--家人寻求被朝鲜绑架者的消息

Families Seek News of North Korean Abductees

Families of people held in North Korea want other countries not to forget their relatives.

One example is Hwang In-cheol’s father. He was among the 47 people who were on a Korean Air Lines (KAL) airplane that was hijacked¹ to North Korea in 1969.

Most of the passengers and crew were released following international pressure. But not all. Eleven individuals, including Hwang’s father, were not permitted to leave North Korea or even communicate with their families.

“To this day, 48 years later, my father and the rest of the 11 unreturned abductees remain forcefully detained in North Korea and they have been forgotten,” Hwang said.

The son now leads an activist² group called the KAL Abductees’ Repatriation³ Committee. It works to bring international attention to the issue of people held against their will in North Korea.

The North Korean government returned most prisoners-of-war from the Korean War after the fighting stopped in 1953. However, the government reportedly forced thousands of South Koreans to remain in the North to help rebuild the country.

Thousands of others reportedly were kidnapped over the years to gain intelligence or serve some propaganda purpose. Many are said to have been fishermen.

Hwang’s father was a reporter and a critic of the North Korean government. He is one of more than 500 people thought to be held by the North.

The Citizen’s Alliance for North Korean Human Rights and the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances⁴ (WGEID) deal with such issues. They say 300 of those abductees are believed to be more than 70 years old.

Many of the abduction cases remain unresolved. Increasing tensions on the Korean Peninsula have blocked cooperation on humanitarian⁵ issues.

Hwang said the South Korean Human Rights Commission has provided “no help” to gain the release of abductees or to help families communicate with them.

Japanese abductees also among those taken

North Korea has also been accused of seizing a number of Japanese and other foreign nationals in the 1970s and 1980s. Reports say some of those abducted⁶ were to be trained as spies.

One Japanese abductee was Hitomi Soga. She was taken with her mother from an area along Japan’s northern coast in 1978.

While in North Korea, she married Charles Jenkins. He had served in the United States Army. He left his base in South Korea and went to North Korea in 1965.

Jenkins later denounced his defection to North Korea, where he said he was abused and tortured during his first years of captivity⁷.

Hitomi Soga was forced to teach the Japanese language and culture to North Korean agents. In 1980, she met and later married Jenkins. They had two daughters while they were in North Korea.

In 2002, the leader of North Korea at the time, Kim Jong-il, admitted that his government had kidnapped 13 Japanese citizens. Soga and four other Japanese abductees were permitted to visit Japan again, but they refused to return to North Korea.

Charles Jenkins and their two daughters were permitted to rejoin Soga in 2004. He recently died in Japan at the age of 77.

Recent weapons tests have frozen abductee issue

Before North Korea again began testing nuclear weapons, the government reached an agreement with other countries to ease some sanctions. In exchange, North Korea was to carry out an investigation⁸ on the condition of the abductees. However, those efforts have halted with the North’s continued weapons testing and the international sanctions that followed.

Phil Robertson is deputy director in Asia for the activist group Human Rights Watch. He said there was a short period of openness when Jenkins and others were released, but now the abductee issue is not being discussed.

Robertson said North Korea is now in “complete denial on the case of abductions of foreign nationals.”

The United Nations Security Council met recently to discuss a General Assembly recommendation on North Korea’s human rights record. Under the proposal, Council members would refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.

However, China, North Korea’s ally, has blocked further action.

North Korea has condemned⁹ the UN action, calling the accusations¹⁰ false and the meeting the act of “hostile forces.”

I’m Mario Ritter.

Words in This Story

abductee –n. someone who has been taken away from a place by force

defect –v. to leave one’s own country or group to go a competitor or an enemy

sanctions –n. measures meant to force a country to obey international law usually by limiting trade

refer – v. to make a note of something; to offer for consideration

1 hijacked   

劫持( hijack的过去式和过去分词 )； 绑架； 拦路抢劫； 操纵（会议等，以推销自己的意图）

参考例句：

• The plane was hijacked by two armed men on a flight from London to Rome. 飞机在从伦敦飞往罗马途中遭到两名持械男子劫持。
• The plane was hijacked soon after it took off. 那架飞机起飞后不久被劫持了。

2 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

3 repatriation   

n.遣送回国，归国

参考例句：

• The Volrep programme is the preferred means of repatriation. 政府认为自愿遣返计划的遣返方法较为可取。 来自互联网
• Arrange the cargo claiming and maritime affairs,crews repatriation,medical treatment,traveling so on. （六）洽办货物理赔，船舶海事处理，办理船员遣返，就医，旅游等。 来自互联网

4 disappearances   

n.消失( disappearance的名词复数 )；丢失；失踪；失踪案

参考例句：

• Most disappearances are the result of the terrorist activity. 大多数的失踪案都是恐怖分子造成的。 来自辞典例句
• The espionage, the betrayals, the arrests, the tortures, the executions, the disappearances will never cease. 间谍活动、叛党卖国、逮捕拷打、处决灭迹，这种事情永远不会完。 来自英汉文学

5 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

6 abducted   

劫持，诱拐( abduct的过去式和过去分词 )； 使（肢体等）外展

参考例句：

• Detectives have not ruled out the possibility that she was abducted. 侦探尚未排除她被绑架的可能性。
• The kid was abducted at the gate of kindergarten. 那小孩在幼儿园大门口被绑架走了。

7 captivity   

n.囚禁；被俘；束缚

参考例句：

• A zoo is a place where live animals are kept in captivity for the public to see.动物园是圈养动物以供公众观看的场所。
• He was held in captivity for three years.他被囚禁叁年。

8 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

9 condemned   

adj. 被责难的, 被宣告有罪的 动词condemn的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He condemned the hypocrisy of those politicians who do one thing and say another. 他谴责了那些说一套做一套的政客的虚伪。
• The policy has been condemned as a regressive step. 这项政策被认为是一种倒退而受到谴责。

10 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。