Ten thousand yellow handkerchiefs have been tied to trees in remembrance of South Koreans who were abducted by North Korea during the 1950-1953 Korean War.

A South Korean NGO which supports the families of those who were abducted and detained by North Korea initiated the ceremony to show that the prisoners had not been forgotten.

The families of the abducted Koreans tied the handkerchiefs to pine trees near the Imjingak (Paju) pavilion, located near the border between North and South Korea.

"This year marks the 20th anniversary of my father's kidnapping by North Korea. I've never lost hope that my father, remembered as a man in his early 40s, will return home safe," the President of the NGO, Choe Wu-young, said.

South Korea's Unification Ministry said that North Korea did not hand over the 548 soldiers taken as prisoners during the Korean War. He said that at least another 485 South Koreans have been kidnapped by the North since the end of the war, according to Asia News.

Although North Korea claimed that the imprisoned South Koreans had chosen to stay back "voluntarily", 38 prisoners managed to escape and return home to tell a different story, Asia News explains.

The initiative of tying the yellow handkerchiefs was started in year 2005.