Returned ROK Prisoners-of-War Collecting Points and ‘Hell Island’, Yoncho-Do

During the Korean War, Korean soldiers who were captured by the North Korean People’s Army were repatriated to South Korea on two occasions. They were welcomed being called “returning prisoners” or “returning warriors” by the South Korean government. These returned prisoners have been largely forgotten. In this paper, the definition of and the return process of the POWs, the process of setting up the return of POW collecting points, and incidents that occurred during ideological re-education of the returned POW’s, are examined. They were detained in UN Prisoners-of-War Camp No. 1B, Yoncho-Do, located in Hansan-myeon, Tongyeong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do, through the port of Incheon from Panmunjeom as they were suspected of having had ‘brainwashing education’ and being collaborators. The returned prisoners had to undergo rigorous ideological review and retraining by the US military and the ROK military CIC (Counter Intelligence Corp) on the island. During the process, some of the return prisoners were “legally prosecuted” because they could not pass the interrogation. Returned prisoners could only survive if they were verified as “a citizen” rather than “an enemy inside” in what became known as the “Hell Island” of Yongchodo. Although the POW’s had survived the battlefields and North Korean prison camp, they were still unable to escape “Hell Island”.