Here comes the sickening North Korean twist to the tale of Robert Park, the young Christian missionary who walked into North Korea on Christmas Day. An American, of Korean descent, Park crossed over from China, on the frozen Tumen River, reportedly calling out messages of God’s love as he entered North Korea. Park trespassed into North Korea to call attention to the monumental trespass of North Korea’s regime on human rights and decency. He carried a letter asking Kim Jong Il to open his brutal prison camps and free the North Korean people, and he left behind statements and an interview spelling out that he did not want to be ransomed or released until North Korea’s gulag had been opened up, and shut down.
Park was seized by North Korean authorities, and in the six weeks since he offered himself up as a martyr for the cause of freedom in North Korea, his fate has been a mystery. Now, one of the propaganda organs of Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency, is offering to enlighten us about Park. According to the KCNA, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has decided to “leniently forgive and release him,” a decision reached by “taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrong doings into consideration.”
This announcement is accompanied by another account from KCNA, claiming that Park has now confessed he was “taken in by the false rumors spread by the West.” According to North Korean authorities, Park has now decided that the horrific reports so richly documented in the West of atrocities, brutality, slave labor and repression in North Korea are all just “false propaganda.” KCNA treats us to an “interview” with Park, in which he is described as saying he’s “very thankful for their love,” and has been convinced that “religious freedom is fully ensured in the DPRK,” that people there can read and believe anything they want, “wherever they want, whenever they want,” and he has “seriously repented.” This account goes on ad nauseum to proclaim that Park, in a complete flip, has come to see that North Korea “respects the rights of all the people and guarantees their freedom and they enjoy a happy and stable life.”
Quite likely the news will now focus on where, how and in what condition Robert Park is released from North Korea — if, indeed, that comes to pass. But that was never the point. We don’t know what Park has been through while he was held incommunicado by the expert torturers and mind-twisters of the world’s most brutal totalitarian state. But he did not go in there asking that the outcome be his own release.
Park walked into North Korea asking that the prison camps be opened, and that the 23 million or so North Korean people be genuinely freed. The test of that is not whether North Korean authorities are able within six weeks to produce their own revision of the man named Robert Park.
Whatever Robert Park allegedly said in NK or did not say does not matter. It does not matter either whether he was forced to say the things or he voluntarily said what he said. What matters is the fact that he walked into the living hell on earth on his own alone. That was what I waited for ten years I worked on NK human rights issue. If he comes out of NK alive, we have to welcome him back to our bosom. We have to continue to cry with him for the suffering of the North Korean people. Robert was, is, and will be my hero.
We saw a documentary on N. Korea and I truly do not see how they survive. The state of the children was sad. Sad seems like such an inadequate word for what the documentary showed. How can one man do so much damage and be allowed to stay in power is beyond my understanding of humanity.
We live in a world abundant with food, shelter, care.
No one should suffer , Especially the children.
North Korea needs to be opened, whether the leaders like it or not,
It occurs to me that while what the NKs are saying at this point about his condition or opinions cannot be believed, neither can most of what he will probably say when he is released. Whether he is believable or not, any potential he may have ever had in his private life to influence anything in NK is history.
Having high-flown motives does not inherently bestow credibility or effectiveness.
Sounds like a brave man.
Sin-U Nam,
I agree with you that Robert is a hero. His effort to call the world’s attention to the suffering inflicted on the masses by the evil regime is the most selfless act anyone could have thought up.
God Bless you, Robert Park. There is a special place in heaven reserved just for you, I’m sure.
Brave MAN!
I’m inclined to believe that the Norks just made up that bit about him admitting fault.
A controversy erupted in South Korea, as I expected, whether Robert Park should have done what he did or not. Whether he was an idiot or a braveheart. It is sickening to read all these garbage. Robert knew very well what NK is, Kim Jong-il is, and how much the NK people are suffering. That NK is one vast concentration camp and that Kim Jong-il is a coward and butcher. He decided to walk into that living hell on earth in spite of that. The idiots want Robert’s blood. They say Robert should have died in NK to become a martyr. I say Robert resurrected and will do more for the 23 million mondern day slaves than anyone else. Robert, keep your head up high and fight on! I will cry and fight with you all the way.
Even if he did admit fault…we do not know what he was put through, the torture, the threats. Anything to survive, anything..
All of this merely shows that he is human. he should be welcomed back as a brave man that tried to help the desperate. He will have stories to tell..
Where is he????? Who is working on this ????
Please follow up on this with some new investigation. It appeared to me that Mr. Park may had some mental health issues going into this fiasco and upon his release I can only conclude that the poor man’s mental health is now much worse. It appears to me that the NKs cracked him quickly like a soft nut and realized he was mentally ill, thus his quick release. I hope that hose around him who have been professing their love for him in the local media are up to the task of helping this man, but I fear he will be exploited by even them.