Long

Long-term Prisoners Return Home after Maintaining their Faith

National Reunification Prize Awarded

Unconverted long-term prisoners are warmly welcomed by north Korean people on Sept. 2 after they passed through Panmunjom.

Marking a further step forward reconciliation of the north and south, 63 unconverted long-term prisoners were repatriated to their homeland Sept. 2 under an agreement reached and signed in June by General Secretary Kim Jong Il and President Kim Dae Jung.

Most of them in their late 60s and 70s, some in wheelchairs and on stretchers, the former prisoners crossed the border in the morning, passing through the truce village of Panmunjom in the Demilitarized Zone.

Hundreds of thousands of north Korean flocked to welcome the ex-prisoners returning home after decades of confinement in south Korean prisons clapping their hands as they crossed into the northern side.

Unconverted long-term prisoners had emotional reunions with their families and relatives at the Thongil House in Panmunjom upon their return to the north. As unconverted long-term prisoners crossed the demarcation line at Panmunjom and came close to the house, their families and relatives rushed to throw themselves into their arms, voices calling their fathers, husbands and children. The high-ranking DPRK officials also welcomed their return to north Korea, embracing all the 63 long-term prisoners one by one.

Given a zealous welcome by north Koreans, the unconverted long-term prisoners were at a loss for words for a while, and realized that it was not a dream but real as they embraced their families and relatives in their arms.

"I had looked forward to the day when I would step into the place where Tongil House is located when crossing the DML," said Ri Jong Hwan, 77, in almost in tears, who served his term of imprisonment for 43 years.

Hours later, in Pyongyang, a great number of welcoming people standing in lines waved flowers as the minibuses carrying the returning ex-prisoners drove through Pyongyang. Pyongyang city was filled with an enthusiastic atmosphere to give warm welcome to them which was displayed by a sea of flowers and dances everywhere. "We warmly welcome the heroes who maintained their strong conviction," read one of the banners displayed in Pyongyang city.

Arriving at Pyongyang, the unconverted long-term prisoners visited the Kumsusan Memorial Palace to pay homage to the late President Kim Il Sung. According to the KCNA, "they were wrapped in yearning for the president whom they believed in and followed as their mainstay for a long time in prison."

Meanwhile, each of them was awarded a National Reunification Prize after receiving a decree from the Presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly on awarding the prizes to them.

The KCNA reported the SPA awarded the prize to the unconverted long-term prisoners, the indomitable pro-reunification patriotic fighters, who maintain strong faith and revolutionary fidelity to overcome decades-long imprisonment with their revolutionary spirit following the idea of the reunification of the fatherland led by the late President Kim Il Sung and General Secretary Kim Jong Il.

Newspapers in Pyongyang carried editorials to welcome the 63 unconverted long-term prisoners as men of faith and indomitable fighters. Of these editorials, Rodong Sinmun said their repatriation marks an important occasion to demonstrate to the world the strong will and stubborn mental power of the Korean nation neither to compromise nor yield to injustice.

At the banquet for the unconverted long-term prisoners hosted by the DPRK government, an unconverted long-term prisoner, Kim U Thaek, made a speech that they could overcome rigorous trials for 30 and 40 years in prison, refusing to be converted because they had the great party and the great motherland.

"We who are reborn thanks to the marshal will devote ourselves to the accomplishment of the independent reunification of the country and the cause of our socialism, country and compatriots," the KCNA quoted him as saying.

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