Chang-ho Cho

**Chang-ho Cho** is a Republic of Korea Army (ROK) lieutenant who was captured during the Battle of Hanseok Mountain in the Korean War on May 19, 1951. He held a prisoner of war until his escape in October of 1994.

## Early Life and Military service

Chang-ho Cho was born on October 2, 1930 in Pyongyang, (North) Korea. His family moved to Seoul, (South) Korea where he graduated from Gyeonggi Commercial High school and entered Yonsei University in 1950. When North Korea invaded South Korea and caused the Korea War, Cho volunteered for the ROK Army and became an officer of an artillery unit.

Cho participated in the Battle of Hanseok Mountain, which was part of the United Nations May–June 1951 counteroffensive that was in reaction to the Chinese People Volunteer Army's Spring Offensive. Cho was captured by members of the PVA and was sent to North Korea. He attempted escape in February of 1952, but was captured and was sentenced thirteen years by the court-martial of 1st Corps of the North Korean People's Army.

## Prisoner of War

Life in North Korea was extremely difficult for Cho and his fellow POWs. Because he was from an upper-class home and Christian, he was not well-trusted by the North Koreans. For his thirteen-year sentence, he was incarcerated at political camp at A-O-Ji, Manpo, Dukchon and Toichang, North Korea. He and the rest of the prisoners were physically and verbally abused and tortured and their names were replaced with numbers. Many died from exposure and disease. According to Cho, "Even in severe cold, we only had thin clothes to wear.  There were no beds, blankets, or pillows. There was only a drum can to be used as a toilet. Conversations between inmates were prohibited.  If we talk to one another, conversations were tapped and reported to the guards.  We couldn't even wash our faces and brush our teeth. After eight years of hell, an official prison camp was built and we could wash ourselves since then." While incarcerated, he met a female South Korean inmate.

After being release for good behavior in August of 1964 and assigned to the Hwa-Poong coal mines in North Pyongyang province, the two married. They divorced after five years and having three children, as the constant surveillance and North Korean demand of them to spy on each other made the marriage very difficult. Working conditions at the coal mine were just as bad. He became ill enough that he vomited blood and an underground accident crippled his right leg and nearly killed him. In 1977, he was exiled to a remote part of the country near the Amrok River at the border with China where he raised his three young children in a one-room shack and faced constant surveillance.

## Escape and Aftermath

In the fall of 1990, Cho met a Korean-Chinese peddler named Lee who told him that South Koreans were visiting Yenpien, China. When Lee returned the next year, Cho wrote the the names of his six siblings and the name of the women's college where his oldest sister had taught before the war and gave it to Lee. In the fall of 1992, Lee returned to the village again and told Cho that although his parents are deceased, all of his siblings are alive and well and provided him a picture of his mother. With the new information, Cho was now determined to escape again.

In October of 1994, Cho crossed the river to China with Lee and fetched a smuggler's boat to cross South Korea. Before he escaped, he tried to convince his children to escape with him, without mentioning South Korea, but they refused. On October 23, 1994, he was found semiconscious by fisheries agency officials off South Korea's west coast in the Yellow Sea. He was taken to the hospital where he was legally identified as himself. After being cleared by South Korean authorities, he joined his family in Seoul. A month later, a military ceremony marked his discharge from active duty. He was promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant and received one of South Korea's highest honors. On May 4, 1995, he married Shin-Ja Youn in Seoul.

Chang-ho Cho was the first South Korean POW to successfully escape North Korea after the Korean War. Since his escape, dozens of other POWs have successfully escaped. In South Korea, he devoted the rest of his life to the repatriation effort of other POWs and their families in North Korea. In an interview, he credited God for him surviving this long and hoped he would see his children one day and the two Koreas united. In 2006, he attended the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs and testified about the South Korean POW issue and his experiences. By then, it was believed North Korea held around four-hundred South Korean POWs, but the North Korean government has denied their existence. He passed away on November 19, 2006.

## Media

* Cho was portrayed by In-pyo Cha in South Korean movie Albatross.

## Sources

* *Los Angeles Times*
* *Korea Joongang Daily*
* Korean War POW Affairs in the USA
* Chang-ho Cho on Wikipedia
* Korean War POWs detained in North Korea on Wikipedia