By Charles Scanlon BBC correspondent in Seoul

Friends and relatives have come to give support to Lee Yon-sun, whose husband was kidnapped by North Korean agents eight years ago.

He was a missionary working with refugees in north-east China and she has not heard a word from him since he was taken away. Mrs Lee said the South Korean government had done little to help.

Japan got North Korea to send back five kidnap victims last year

"I have no faith in what the government is doing. I feel betrayed by them. I don't believe they're doing anything. I just dream that one day I'll be able to meet my husband again," she said.

While most of the region is focused on the nuclear weapons threat from North Korea, less attention is paid to its kidnapping of foreign nationals.

Japan gives it equal weight, since North Korea admitted to kidnapping more than a dozen of its citizens, plucking many from beaches to teach Japanese to North Korean spies.

But for the nearly 500 South Koreans kidnapped over the years, there is no such consideration. South Korea will not push the issue for fear of upsetting the North.

On a boat off the west coast, relatives recently gathered to remember lost brothers and fathers - fishermen whose boats were seized by North Korean patrols. Some have waited in vain for decades.

Lee Jae-gun, a former fishermen now in his 60s, is one of the few kidnap victims to have escaped, 30 years after his boat was boarded by the North Korean navy.

Seoul does not want to threaten its burgeoning links with the North

Mr Lee said he was initially given training as a spy but later his captors gave up on him and sent him to a remote factory town. Eventually he escaped across the border to China.

"Life in North Korea was indescribable. When the famine came I had to survive by eating weeds and roots. As a South Korean I was in the lowest class of society and so I suffered discrimination," he said.

Mr Lee said that since his return, he has received little support. He was turned away by South Korean diplomats in China when he first approached them for help.

Softly, softly approach

The government acknowledges that more than 400 South Koreans have been kidnapped by the North but it does not want to shout too loudly for fear of jeopardising relations.

At the Ministry for Unification in Seoul, Yun Mi-ryang, who heads a small team working on the kidnappings, said she tries to raise the problem at every meeting with the North Koreans.

"For 50 years we made strong protests and got nowhere. Now we hope the soft approach will get results. When we fight they won't listen, so if we become friends maybe they'll listen to us," she said.

When Japan pressed its case with North Korea, the leader, Kim Jong-il, eventually admitted the kidnappings and apologised.