Two South Korean soldiers, believed to have been killed during the 1950-53 Korean war, have escaped from communist North Korea and returned home after more than 45 years, officials said yesterday.
"The two prisoners of war and two other family members have returned to South Korea through a third country," an official at the National Security Planning agency in Seoul said.
The term "third country" is generally taken to indicate China. Beijing has an agreement with North Korea to repatriate any of its citizens and is keen not to be identified in any defections.
Another government official said the two had been declared dead after the Korean war by South Korean authorities, who last month claimed about 136 prisoners of war, also believed dead, were still alive and being held in North Korea.
The NSP said the two POWs - Mr Kim Bok-Ki (67) and Mr Park Dong-Il (71) - were undergoing questioning about their escape from the Stalinist state after being captured in July 1953 during the war in Kumhwa, northern Kangwon province.
"After being caught, the POWs were then sent to work in the mines," the official said.
He said the son and daughter, believed to be husband and wife, of the two POWs had arrived in Seoul with their fathers, but no further details were immediately available.
"It seems like the two POWs are somehow related as their children are husband and wife. We are further questioning them on their escape," the NSP official said.
Other POWs have also returned home recently claiming that more of them were languishing in the North nearly five decades after their capture.
Mr Chang Mu-Hwan, who made a dramatic escape in August after nearly 50 years in captivity, said 30 of his South Korean comrades were still alive.
The 72-year-old POW told stories of his "life of hell" in North Korea, saying he was subjected to a lifetime of forced labour in the state coal mines.
The old man was formally discharged from the South Korean army in October after being awarded 45 years' back pay, amounting to 120 million won ($91,000).
Mr Chang, given a monthly pension and an apartment, was also reunited with his wife and son in South Korea.
The South Korean government has said it was working towards repatriating the POWs, but details were not given.
South and North Korea remain technically at war as the conflict ended only with the signing of an armistice. A permanent peace treaty has never been signed.
The number of South Korean POWs believed to be held in North Korea varies. The South's military says the number is at least 28,000 but after the war North Korea said it had detained only about 7,000, and handed them over to South Korea.
South Korea's national assembly sent a letter yesterday to Pyongyang proposing a reunion of families separated for decades by the division of the Korean peninsula.
In the letter sent by South Korean assembly speaker Mr Park Jyun-Kyu to his North Korean counterpart, Mr Kim Yong-Nam, Seoul urged Pyongyang to put the reunion issue at the top of its priority list.