As we reported in the last issue of the Update & Review, the leaders of North and South Korea met in June to discuss developing bilateral relations between their two countries. As part of an agreement that arose out of those talks, two hundred Korean families were allowed to reunite briefly in August. (For more, see 50 Years Later, elsewhere in this issue.) Another outgrowth of the June meetings was South Korea's recent repatriation of some 60 North Koreans who were convicted in the South as spies, and imprisoned decades ago. South Korean President Kim Dae-jung released the spies from prison in 1998, but they were not allowed to leave South Korea without government approval, until now.

Various factions in South Korea, including some opposition legislators, have objected to the unilateral return of the long-held North Koreans. Hundreds of South Korean POWs and civilians who were kidnapped by the North have reportedly been held against their will in North Korea for years, although North Korea denies these allegations. South Korean officials have not linked the return of South Koreans to the return of the spies. Many South Koreans believe this is a missed opportunity to get their countrymen back.

The question of linkage of one issue to another has been rather controversial in modern politics, in the United States and elsewhere. Families of missing American servicemen have long advocated for linkage of our accounting effort to other issues of importance between the U.S. and relevant foreign governments. Our efforts generally have not prevailed.

In mid-September, Kim Dae-jung promised to work for the return of South Koreans believed held against their will in the North. Kim reportedly told three major television channels that 700 to 800 South Koreans are still being held in the North; 454 civilians and about 300 POWs, whose names have been learned from North Korean defectors and several South Korean POWs who have escaped from North Korea in recent years. Other reports cite a much larger number of South Korean POWs as still being held in the north.

As South Korea begins to raise the POW issue during negotiations with North Korea, the United States should seize the opportunity to escalate its own dialogue with the North Koreans about missing Americans. There have been numerous reports of American POWs in North Korea since the war ended, many of which have come in the last few years. With North Korea seemingly ready to come out of isolation, we should define the dialogue, in no uncertain terms, to include the issue of live American POWs. (For more information on the issue of live POWs, see The Distinction Between POWs and MIAs, page 13)

In June of this year, Deputy DPMO Director Alan Liotta held negotiations with the North Koreans to get remains recovery operations back on track. The subject of live Americans was not addressed at these meetings. At the June family update in D.C., Mr. Liotta told families that he would go to North Korea during the summer and raise the issue then. Mr. Liotta did not raise the issue during his trip early in the summer, but has said he will 'lay down some markers' on the subject during his trip at the end of September. He says he intends to get a sense of things, and plant a seed or suggestion that the subject will be raised during anticipated negotiations in December, with the hope that the North Koreans will have information ready to present at the end of the year.

It has been 47 years since the end of the Korean War. We have been asking about live Americans since 1953. It seems we have been rather patient with the North Koreans' refusal to discuss the issue. After all, these men have only one life to live. Any who survived their ordeal have had to spend that life in a foreign land in the hands of an unkind enemy. My father has been missing my entire life. I see the painstaking deference to North Korea's talent for dragging things out as tacit acceptance of the status quo. Six months here; six months there … one would think that the passing of time is not a problem in this.

If the North Koreans can continue to deny, ignore, and postpone without consequence, why would they ever do anything else? Millions of dollars in U.S. aid flow into the country. They're getting nuclear power plants; fuel oil; and food. At times it appears they have U.S. officials dancing on a string, as they bandy about their threat of further missile development. The latest 'offer', as reported by Russian President Vladimir Putin, is that North Korea would forego building ballistic missiles if other countries help them launch scientific satellites. It seems all that North Korea cannot do for itself will be done by this country and others, in order to beat back North Korea's threats. That sounds a lot like blackmail. Blackmailers usually don't stop until someone makes them.

Meanwhile, this Administration does not want to rock the boat, so they tippy-toe around the sticky issue of live American POWs. Their policy for North Korea is one of engagement without regard to the level of cooperation on missing American servicemen. DPMO is a mid level office within DoD. They can raise the issue forever. Things will not change until U.S. policy, at the highest level, provides a real incentive to cooperate; like maybe the North Koreans won't get humanitarian aid until they tell us what they did with American servicemen.

Before the North Korean spies were released by South Korea, North Korea used that as a benchmark for discussing missing Americans. Well, the spies have been released now. It's time to talk about the Americans. Actually, it's time to release the Americans...and tell us what happened to the thousands of others who remain missing. If the U.S. government does not demand meaningful cooperation at this juncture, it will have serious credibility problems on the issue, and no reason to expect results.