SEOUL, South Korea — An American missionary carrying a letter for the North Korean dictator crossed illegally into the reclusive country to try bring international attention to the North Korean suffering, South Korean activists said Saturday.
¡°I am an American citizen,¡± Robert Park, 28, said as he crossed the frozen river separating China from North Korea on Friday, according to Jo Sung-rae, head of Pax Koreana, a conservative civic group based in Seoul. ¡°I am coming here to deliver God¡¯s love. God loves you.¡±
By early Sunday, there was no word of his fate from North Korea.
Before heading to China last week to make the journey, Mr. Park said he was determined to become a ¡°martyr¡± for the tens of thousands of people said to be incarcerated in North Korea¡¯s infamous concentration camps, Mr. Jo said.
In a videotaped message he made before the trip, Mr. Park said he wanted to be arrested and had no intention of leaving North Korea voluntarily until it shuts down its camps. He also said he did not want President Obama to ¡°buy his freedom.¡±
In August, former President Bill Clinton led a delegation to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, American journalists who were detained in North Korea for nearly five months after crossing the river border illegally.
After a prayer on the banks of the Tumen River, Mr. Park, a Korean-American missionary from Tucson, Ariz., entered North Korea amid heavy snow at 5:01 p.m. on Christmas Day, repeatedly shouting his message in Korean, Mr. Jo said.
Mr. Park was carrying a letter addressed to the North Korean ruler Kim Jong-il, asking him to open his borders so that aid can be brought in and to ¡°close down all concentration camps and release all political prisoners.¡±
A copy of the letter was posted on Pax Koreana¡¯s Web site.
His venture could complicate Washington¡¯s diplomacy, which has focused mainly on coaxing the North Korean government regime to return to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks. The government considers any outside criticism of its top leader a grave challenge.
North Korea¡¯s criminal code calls for punishing illegal entry with up to years of hard labor. Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee, the American journalists, were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and ¡°hostile acts.¡±
Mr. Park crossed the border near the northeastern North Korean city of Hoeryong, Mr. Jo said.
North Korea holds about 160,000 political prisoners in a network of prison camps across the country, according to South Korean and American government estimates based on testimonies from former inmates. North Korea denies their existence, but several former inmates who have escaped to the South reported harsh labor, inadequate food and arbitrary killings in the camps.
Mr. Park was known among Christian activists in Seoul for giving away his coats to homeless people in Seoul. Friends here said he had worked as a missionary in Mexico, caring for homeless people there, before moving to China last year to help and proselytize to North Korean refugees there. Last July, he moved to South Korea, saying that God gave him a vision for ¡°North Korean liberation.¡±
¡°He was such a passionate Christian,¡± said Suh Suk-koo, a South Korean member of the American-Korean Friendship National Council, a Virginia-based civic group founded by Korean-American Christians in the United States. ¡°He said it was time to revive the spirit of early Christian martyrs who were not afraid of being eaten by lions during the Roman rule.¡± (ºÎÃß¿¬ ¹ø¿ª : ¹Ì±¹ ¹öÁö´Ï¾Æ¿¡ º»ºÎ¸¦ µÐ ÇÑ¹Ì ±âµ¶¿¬¸Í À§¿øÀÎ ¼¼®±¸ º¯È£»ç´Â ·Î¹öÆ® ¹ÚÀº Á¤¸»·Î ÈǸ¢ÇÑ ¸ñ»çÀÌ´Ù. ·Î¹öÆ®¹Ú ¸ñ»ç´ÔÀÇ ºÏÇÑ ¹ÐÀÔ±¹Àº »çÀÚÀÇ ¹äÀÌ µÇ´Â °ÍÀ» µÎ·Á¿öÇÏÁö ¾Ê°í ÀúÇ×ÇÑ ·Î¸¶½Ã´ëÀÇ ¼ø±³ÀÚ¸¦ ¿¬»óÄÉ ÇÏ´Â ¼ø±³ÇàÀ§" ¶ó°í ¸»Çß´Ù.
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