British woman whose father was kidnapped by North Korea after a plane hijacking in 1969 pleads with Kim Jong-un to release him for Christmas

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A British woman is pleading to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to release her father, who was kidnapped during a plane hijacking 48 years ago. 

Cecilia O’Hare, 48, was just three months old when her father Hwang Won boarded a flight from north-east South Korea to the capital Seoul on December 11, 1969.

But Korean Air Lines YS-11 never made its destination, and the flight hijacked by a Pyongyang agent who forced it to land in North Korea, where 46 passengers and four crewmembers were kidnapped.

Heartbreaking: Cecilia O’Hare, 48, from Coventry, was just three months old when her father  was kidnapped by North Korean agents in December 1969

The hijacking caused outrage all over the world, and some 100,000 people joined in a mass protest in Seoul.

After more than two months of global anger, Kim Il Sung - Kim Jong-un’s grandfather and then-dictator of North Korea - released 39 of the prisoners, but kept four crew and seven passengers behind.

Hwang Won, a 32-year-old cameraman and programme director of a South Korean TV-channel, was among those who remained.  

Mrs O'Hare, who now lives in Coventry with her husband and two children, and her brother Hwang Il-Cheon have waged a decades-long crusade to find out the truth about what happened to their father. 

The siblings have made several public calls for the UK government to help in negotiations and in October 2012, Mr Hwang met high-ranking officials from the British and French governments to discuss the repatriation of abductees. 

Missing: This is the last remaining picture of Mrs O'Hare and Mr Hwang with their father before his kidnapping 48 years ago

Left behind: Mrs O'Hare has never known her father, and there has been little to no information about what happened to him after the hijacking

But Pyongyang claim that their father, who would be 79 years old today, has happily defected to North Korea, which is rubbished by the family and supporters who are aiding their case.

Mrs O'Hare, who met her husband while he was working in South Korea, is now pleading to Pyongyang and Kim Jong-Un to release her father in time for Christmas.

‘I feel like there is this empty hole in my heart. Is that what it means to miss someone? I’m not even sure whether it is okay for me to miss my father. I grew up not knowing what it means to miss one’s father,’ says Mrs O'Hare in an interview with South Korean media. 

Mrs O'Hare, whose Korean name is Hwang Chan-wook, works as a counsellor for refugees who are struggling to acclimatise to the United Kingdom. She often dreams of her father and feels like she’s had ‘been robbed of her childhood.’ 

‘It would be a miracle if I see him again in real life. If only that can happen. Some say that the Korean War is over because there is an armistice, but if the war is over, there should be peace, and we should be able to see each other freely. Why can’t we do that?’ 

Campaign: Mrs O'Hare and Mr Hwang are seen taking part in a protest against the hijacking at the South Korean DMZ border with North Korea, along with Teach North Korean Refugeees (TNKR) co-founder Casey Lartigue, centre, who is helping with their plight

Memories: An infant Mrs O'Hare and a young Mr Hwang sit with two women believed to be their mother and grandmother

The 39 passengers who were returned safely to South Korea 66 days after the hijacking has revealed what took place on the flight in December 1969.

Some ten minutes after takeoff from Gangneung, a city on the north-east coast of South Korea, one of the passengers got up and walked into the cockpit.

The man was a North Korean agent, and he forced the pilots to turn around and fly to North Korea.

Once they landed, soldiers boarded the plane, and blindfolded the terrified travellers and crew. 

After mass protests and global outrage, Kim Il-Sung released 39 passengers who later revealed that they had been brainwashed every day for over two months about the communist doctrine.

The one bit of news Mrs O'Hare and her family have been to obtain from the released passengers is that Mr Hwang was twice dragged from his prison cell into the darkness and the second time, he did not return.  

North Korea has always claimed that it was the pilots who had flown the aircraft across the border, as a protest against the then-President of South Korea, and that all the passengers and crew who remained there did so voluntarily.

But the 11 people the who were never released were all skilled workers - pilots, two CEOs, government leaders, two TV producers - including Mrs O'Hare's father. All these people would be useful to the State. 

Fighting: This is one of Mr Hwang's one-man protests in South Korea demanding action.

Hope: Mrs O'Hare and her brother, pictured right, have not seen their father in nearly 50 years, and have set up a petition addressed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon

Mrs O'Hare's brother Hwang Il-Cheon now 50, says the only information that he’s ever had is from a ‘secret source’.

'In 2013, I was contacted by someone who told me that my father was alive and trying to come back to South Korea, and was going to get a ship to China, but that was thwarted when Kim Jong-un conducted nuclear tests and blocked all the sea lanes.

'I asked the source: “Is he wanting to leave South Korea on his own freewill?” And he said: “Yes.” I went to the South Korean Government and said: “You have to do something.” They did nothing. 

‘In 2016, I received information that he was living in Kusong City, I couldn’t get anymore additional information, so it’s impossible to cross-check these claims. I even tried to reach out to NK refugees, who said they’d try to get information, but even they couldn’t.

‘I hope he’s alive, I don’t care if he’s just accepted his fate, I truly can’t hope for anything more than that. I just want it confirmed what his freewill is. I can’t ever give up.’

Mrs O'Hare and Mr Hwang have set up a blog site called Bring My Father Home and an online petition, which has nearly 450 signatures and is addressed to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon.

In the heartfelt petition, it reads: ‘Mr. Secretary-General, please help us bring my father home using humanitarian procedures and efforts. “Dad.” I have lived my whole life longing to call out to him. Forty-seven years have passed, yet I now long to call out even louder the word I never had a chance to say. Now, I want to bravely call out his name and to be embraced in his arms. Please, return my father!’