By I am actually surprised Robert Park was released as fast as he was:
North Korea said Friday it was releasing an American detained in North Korea after reportedly illegally entering the country in December, state-run media reported.
“The relevant organ of the DPRK decided to leniently forgive and release him, taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrongdoings into consideration,” KCNA reported. The news agency earlier reported a lengthy account of what were said to be Park’s misunderstandings about the North and how they had been proven wrong since crossing the border.
Pax Koreana, a Seoul, South Korea-based human rights group affiliated with Park, said he had not yet been released, but celebrated the announcement.
“Today, we announce God’s victory and His awesome work to the world,” the group said in a statement. “We declare that we will march for the freedom of NK (North Korea) in God unceasingly.”
Tyong Park, Robert’s father, said in San Diego that he was “so excited” by the news but had no other information about his son’s release.
Robert Park told relatives before Christmas that he was trying to sneak into the isolated communist state to bring a message of “Christ’s love and forgiveness” to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.
After an investigation, North Korean authorities “decided to leniently forgive and release him, taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrong doings into consideration,” the state-run Korea Central News Agency said.
Park, a Korean-American missionary, set out on his mission because of his misunderstanding of the country, the North Korean news agency said.
During an interview with North Korean authorities, Park reportedly told investigators that “he was taken in by the false rumor spread by the West and committed a criminal act in the end.” Park said he heard stories of concentration camps and of mass killings, prompting him to go to North Korea to help, the news agency said.
A South Korean Web site posted in December a copy of the letter it said Park was trying to deliver to Kim, urging the North Korean leader to free political prisoners and “open your borders so that we may bring food, provisions, medicine, necessities, and assistance to those who are struggling to survive.”
But according to the North Korean news agency, once in North Korea Park said he was treated well and allowed to attend church and pray freely.
“People have been incredibly kind and generous here to me, very concerned for my physical health as never before in my life,” the North Korean news agency quoted Park as saying. “I mean, my family, of course, is concerned about my physical health but people here have been constantly concerned and I’m very thankful for their love.” [CNN]
This guy must have of been of no use to them to just give him up so quickly. It is going to be interesting though to see what he says after he is released if his statements attributed to him by the North Korean media are true or not? One thing I am pretty sure of is that he is not getting any multi-million dollar book deal; you have to be a member of the media, friends with the elites, and slightly good looking to pull that off.
1:52 am on February 5th, 2010 1
Looks like I was right about this knucklehead. So much for preaching the Gospel in concentration camps. I doubt that he even came anywhere near those camps. He accomplished absolutely nothing, and he didn't raise awareness on the DPRK human rights issue at all. No major news outlet was even following Bobby's capture.
Congrats Bobby. You just spent the last couple of months twiddling your thumbs.
4:20 am on February 5th, 2010 2
DPRK can't milk any money out of him, so they let him go.
5:03 am on February 5th, 2010 3
In like a lion… out like a lamb.
But nothing is as it seems here.
12:18 pm on February 5th, 2010 4
Now he can write a book?
11:21 pm on February 5th, 2010 5
If he does write a memoir, it would be worth it to compare to Captain Bucher's "My Story," his memoir of the year in confinement after the 1968 USS Pueblo capture. The North Koreans were pretty brutal to those American soldiers, but they ended up, as I recall, requiring "confessions" very similar to the one supposedly authored by Park that was published by KCNA.
I pulled together some of what the Chinese press is saying about this story, which might interest you:
http://adamcathcart.wordpress.com/2010/02/06/robe…
9:49 am on February 6th, 2010 6
Check him for bruises. They probably beat the shit outta him for a month or so for this silly plan.
Maybe then he can write a book- with a lesser known publisher of course.
11:17 am on February 6th, 2010 7
I think Joshua has a good take on this over at One Free Korea. This happened within days of the DPRK being kept of the list of states that sponsor terrorism. " You keep us off the list, you get back your precious American citizen".
1:05 pm on February 6th, 2010 8
can you spell S-P-Y?
7:49 am on February 8th, 2010 9
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5:58 pm on February 28th, 2010 10
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5:33 pm on October 24th, 2010 11
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4:17 am on November 6th, 2010 12
The comments here make me feel pretty bad. While I agree with some obvious points (Stupid thinking 'walking' in would help anything), he did something he thought might help. Many times walking into NK like this may have help, if Media outlets picked up on it and ran the story it COULD have changed peoples train of thought. From reports I have read, he DID make it to a concentration camp, and was assaulted in most ways (including sexually).
I believe Robert P has done this because the NK Regime is so similar to Hitler and other dictators, yet so little is done about it. We live in a time when the combined efforts of western forces (US, Australia, UK, NZ, EU, ect) could move in and literally 'demolish' the Kim Jong Il regime, yet they do nothing because (1) fear (2) there is no 'good' reason to help; ie: oil. While I believe a majority of people in western countries may feel like we can ignore this, as it is not on our home soil and the North Korean people have in a way, allowed this to happen. I believe as strong nations with strong ties, we need to help these people realize the life they could have in a society such as ours and should I ever get to a point I can help these people, I will.
My hope is a govt or corp takes up this fight. No doubt if my on line venture take off the way I hope, I will be happy to help fund this.
*website can be removed if you like, this is not a spam comment* lol