Choi Sung-ryong was a teenager in South Korea when his father was abducted by North Korean agents. Five years later, in December 1972, the senior Choi was publicly executed at the age of 62. He had been found guilty of treason against North Korea for serving in a unit affiliated with the US Army during the Korean war.
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For nearly 60 years, Choi has fought for the freedom of several hundred other South Koreans forcibly taken north of the border, most of whom were not permitted by Pyongyang to return to their homes. Many of them died in the hermit state without ever seeing South Korea again.
This week, 73-year-old Choi will be in Tokyo, where he will use a relatively new device for his campaign: drones.
Choi will be targeting Chosen Soren, the General Association of Korean Residents of Japan, whose 70,000 members swear allegiance to Pyongyang. Using drones, he will drop leaflets detailing the abductions into the high-walled compound of the association in Tokyo. Over the decades, some members of the association have been accused of being complicit in the abduction of a number of Japanese and South Koreans at the behest of the Kim family in Pyongyang.
Choi, the founder of the Association of Those Abducted by North Korea, hoped the pressure would pay off and pave the way for abductees to return home.
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