Pyongyang to release U.S. missionary who entered North Korea at Christmas
Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - Pyongyang has announced the imminent release of Robert Park, an American citizen of Korean origin, who illegally entered North Korea on Christmas Day. The official North Korean agency reported KCNA reports that the authorities have decided to "forgive and release" the man. The Christian activist is leader of an international network for the Defence of Human Rights in Korea: he made the demonstrative gesture to ask Kim Jong-il and other leaders of the regime in Pyongyang to "repent" for their sins and liberate North Koreans from slavery.
The State Agency notes that the 28-year old North Korean activist of Freedom and Life for All North Koreans admitted his guilt. "The competent body of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - KCNA reports – decided to leniently forgive and release him, taking his admission [of guilt] and sincere repentance of his wrong doings into consideration."
Robert Park, a native of Tucson, Arizona, illegally crossed the border between China and North Korea on Christmas Eve, walking on the frozen surface of the Tumen River. The sequence that shows his entrance into North Korean territory appears to have been filmed by a friend of the activist, named Kim, who was arrested January 15 by Chinese authorities in Yanji, Jilin province.
South Korean activists near Park add that the missionary was carrying a letter in which he called on the "dear leader" Kim Jong-il to release all political prisoners in the country and improve human rights in the communist regime. Park, according to the KCNA said, admitted that his view of North Korea was "false, because based on Western propaganda."
South Korean Christian leaders, who are fighting in defence of human rights, do not believe this official statement and suspect that was is "false" or coerced "under threat". However, the decision to release the activist of American origin could improve relations with Washington, at a time of deadlock in the international diplomacy on the North Korean nuclear issue.
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