I normally don’t do this but I thought there might be some of you interested in reading this press release issued by HRNK in Canada:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 29th, 2009
Toronto, Canada – The Council for Human Rights in North Korea (“HRNK Canada”) today called upon the Government of Canada to intervene for the safety of North Korea Human Rights activist Robert Park.
Robert Park, a Korean-American, originally from Tucson, Arizona, is a Christian missionary and North Korea Human Rights activist, who represents “Freedom and Life for All North Koreans: 2009,” a worldwide coalition of North Korea Human Rights groups, ministries and activists, of which the HRNK Canada is a member as an organization.
Mr. Park, who crossed the China-North Korea border into North Korea at around 5:00pm local time on December 25th and is currently detained by the North Korean authorities, carried with him a letter addressed to the North Korean leadership in which he wrote: “Please open your borders so that we may bring food, provisions, medicine, necessities and assistance to those who are struggling to survive. Please close down all concentration camps (“gulags”) and release all political prisoners therein, and allow care teams to enter to minister healing to those who have been tortured and traumatized.”
Kyung B. Lee, President of the HRNK Canada, said: “Last September we had a North Korea Human Rights Forum with the theme, Open the Borders and Close the Gulags, and issued the related Resolutions. We just launched an international petition campaign in early December, in which Mr. Park willingly joined as an endorser and disseminator, and a national petition campaign as well in mid-December, with an Appeal for Action. We feel like we sent him into North Korea to deliver our messages, and can’t help worrying about his safety as his colleagues.”
Mr. Lee further said: “We call upon the Government of Canada, an international leader in human rights, who has diplomatic relations with North Korea, to intervene for the safety of our colleague Robert Park promptly and earnestly. At the same time, we wish to remind the international community as well as the Government of Canada of our Appeal for Action, which urges for prompt measures, including adoption of the UN Security Council Resolution, to stop the crimes against humanity and dismantle the gulags in North Korea.”
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 30th, 2009
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates –
Your mate Seouldout, sole leader of Free and Unified Korea, Doubtful (F.U.K.D.) and self-appointed chairman of Booze On Mates, Bahrain and Dubai (B.O.M.B.D.), spoke to his minions and the international press corps.
“F.U.K.D. and B.O.M.B.D. join those who call on do-gooder Canada to earnestly engage the Norks to demand the immediate release of that Korean fella. If someone is to be held responsible, let it be the Canuckis. F.U.K.D. and B.O.M.B.D. strongly urge all talks be held in private, and for the well being of all no press releases released nor statements stated. Get on with it, if you must. Quietly. Better still: Secretly. And for the love of Christ, F.U.K.D. and B.O.M.B.D. ask that Canada leave Gore and that grandstanding Clinton prat out of it.
F.U.K.D. and B.O.M.B.D. believe the best Canada is one that’s neither seen nor heard. Except on SCTV.”
Seouldout, I must say that you sound to me like the very type of internet riff-raff that causes so much dissent and disunity in society today. I, as the sitting president of the National Association for the Intermittently Vehemently Enraged (N.A.I.V.E.) can testify that the brave Mr Park is not the first, nor indeed the last of the numerous N.A.I.V.E. citizens (from many nations) who will storm the borders to send a message of love to the Deprived People the Revolution Kept (D.P.R.K.). I am sure that the message of Christian love and tolerance espoused by Mr Park and those who follow will be wholeheartedly and universally embraced. After all, what harm has ever come from the arrival of an uninvited guest who has kindly brought a contentious illegal religion to the party?
Seriously, peace.
Canada is America’s attic anyway. Up there, we throw things that we don’t really care about, but can’t quite bring ourselves to throw away completely just yet.
Well I do agree that human rights should be central to negotiations with North Korea, for several reasons.
short answer… no
Does this mean we can blame Canada?
Don’t we always do?
Oh, I was gonna anyway. Just wanted to know if I should expect everyone else, too.
MrMao says he’s too busy toking up to respond to you korea tainted scumbags
I will always respond to you Korea-tainted scumbags.
Missionary Park’s effort, though viewed as an act of a simpleton for some, may bring some coordinated international effort to isolate NK. Some people in Europe and Africa and South America may not know the horrors of NK, including political prisoner camp and general oppression of its people.
Park may expose these realities to those people, if he gains enough media coverage.
For me Mr. Park is a hero. I get very angry reading on Korean sites how they relate him to Lisa Ling’s little sister and her delusional Korean American journalist pal or the trully idiotic Saemul Korean missionaries to Afghanistan.
Mr. Park went to North Korea in the spirit of Sattyagraha. I doubt he will accomplish anything, and he probably knows this very well. But isn’t it worth while for one man to try this brave self-sacrificing experiment?
One day when the North Korean people are free they will ask, “when we were suffering, who spoke out for us?” There will be Mr. Park. He will be like Bonhoeffer…
If I ever start to go to church again, it’ll be because of people like missionary Park.
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