Beijing appears to have detained a man who helped US Christian missionary Robert Park cross from China into North Korea last month on a one-man human rights crusade, activists said yesterday.
The man, a North Korean defector living in South Korea, was arrested on Friday by police in the Chinese city of Yanji, Radio Free North Korea said on its Web site.
Park himself has been detained in North Korea after crossing a frozen border river on Christmas Day to make a protest against repression in the hardline communist North.
His helper identified only as Kim guided Park to the border and took video footage of him praying on the frozen river before crossing.
CONFIRMATION
“Kim appeared to have been detained last week in Yanji,” Cho Sung-rae, one of Park’s fellow activists in Seoul, said in an interview, confirming the report by the radio station which is run by defectors.
Cho said Kim and another companion of Park had demanded 100 million won (US$89,000) for the video clip and tried to sell it to media organizations.
“I heard through sources in China that the video clip is safe and being kept by one of Kim’s colleagues,” Cho said.
The North has confirmed it is investigating an American detained for illegal entry from China — an apparent reference to Park, a US citizen of Korean ancestry who comes from Tucson in Arizona.
WASHINGTON
The US has expressed concern over Park’s detention, saying Swedish diplomats who represent US interests in Pyongyang would try to meet him.
“Park is now in Pyongyang and I believe there will be talks probably next week between North Korean officials and Swedish diplomats over his fate,” Cho said, citing sources inside the North for his information.
Park, 28, claimed that he had seen a vision from God of North Korea’s liberation and redemption, according to his colleagues.
They said that he had crossed the border shouting, “I came here to proclaim God’s love.”
Some analysts believe the North, which has said it wants better relations with the US, will eventually deport the missionary.
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