A South Korean government panel has confirmed 260 more people were abducted by North Korea during the 1950-53 Korean War, the unification ministry said Wednesday.

The official number of South Korean citizens forcibly taken to the communist North during the war has jumped to 3,635, it said.

The newly-recognized abductees include Han Nam-soo, who fought hard against Japan's colonial rule of Korea from 1910-45, said the ministry. 

The decision by the panel, chaired by Prime Minister Chung Hong-won, was made at its 16th meeting earlier this week after a review of 283 applications, according to the ministry.

South Korea launched the committee in 2010 under a special law aimed at recovering the honor of those who were abducted to the North.

While many of them have already died, their families in the South suffered troubles stemming from misunderstanding in an ideologically divided nation. (Yonhap)