Pretended to Sleep in Van and Secretly Escaped
Later Confronted with Four Suspects but They Were Not the Culprits
Singer Park Wankyu (51) has drawn attention by revealing a past story of being kidnapped by human traffickers. On the 20th, Park Wankyu appeared on MBN's 'Sokpuri Show Dongchimi' and said, "It was in 1989. At that time, something unbelievable was trending in South Korea. It was human trafficking," adding, "Back then, whenever you turned on the TV, there were many reports about people being trafficked," he began.
At the time, Park Wankyu was a first-year high school student on his way to school in the morning. He said he pushed a silver van with his hands after someone asked him to "help push the car a bit." Suddenly, a weapon was pressed behind him, and with the threat "If you scream, I'll kill you," he was forced into the van by the human traffickers. He weighed 45kg at the time, and the place where he was kidnapped was Pyeongtaek City, Gyeonggi Province, which was formerly called Songtan City.
Park Wankyu said, "There were already two female students asleep in the vehicle," and "The traffickers urged me to drink a tonic." After drinking the beverage, thinking he might die, he kept injuring himself to endure the situation. Later, a blood test at the hospital revealed that the drink contained sleeping pill ingredients.
On the 20th, Park Wankyu appeared on MBN's 'Sokpuri Show Dongchimi' and said, "It was in 1989. At that time, something unbelievable was trending in South Korea. It was human trafficking." He continued, "Back then, whenever you turned on the TV, there were many reports about people being trafficked." [Photo by MBN, 'Sokpuri Show Dongchimi']
He said, "Eventually, I was taken all the way to Daejeon. Near the Daejeon terminal, the traffickers parked in an alley to eat. I pretended to be asleep and escaped, then immediately took a taxi." He continued, "When I asked the taxi driver to take me to Pyeongtaek (Songtan), at first, the driver said, 'What?' because the distance was too far, but after realizing my condition was strange, he started driving," adding, "I explained the whole situation on the way. Later, we stopped at a rest area where the driver reported to the police."
He added, "At that time, the local police station was Pyeongtaek Police Station, and later I faced the four-member gang in a lineup. I went because I heard the traffickers were caught, but it wasn’t those four," explaining, "Human trafficking was very common back then. They caught many small men to sell them like slaves on anchovy fishing boats."
Previously, in 2013, Park Wankyu also shared a near experience of human trafficking on KBS2's 'Yeo-yu Manman.' His mother, who appeared with him at the time, said, "Suddenly, I got a call saying he seemed to have been trafficked. I told him to immediately go out to a main street, blend in with people, and catch a taxi. That’s how he came back home," adding, "I think it’s a miracle that my son survived." She continued, "Unfortunately, there were also two girls there," and "My son struggled a lot with guilt for not being able to protect those girls."
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