North Korea apparently detains American missionary who slipped into , activist says

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Activist: NKorea apparently detains US missionary

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korean border guards apparently detained an American missionary as soon as he walked into the communist nation in an effort to call attention to Pyongyang’s human rights abuses, an activist said Monday.

Robert Park, 28, slipped across the frozen Tumen River into the North from China on Christmas Day carrying letters calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to shut down the country’s political prison camps and step down from power. There has been no word from him since.

Jo Sung-rae of the Seoul-based activist group Pax Koreana cited a person who witnessed Park’s crossing as saying that voices were heard on the North Korean side as soon as he went over.

Jo quoted the person, one of two people who guided Park, as saying visibility was poor. “But he said he heard people talking loudly when Robert arrived there,” Jo added. “I think they were border guards and Robert was taken into custody immediately.”

North Korea’s state-run media has not mentioned Park or any illegal entries into the country by foreigners. The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said they were aware of the incident but had no details.

U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson in Beijing said Monday the U.S. consulate in Shenyang in northeastern China is treating Park’s situation as a “welfare and whereabouts” case and is talking with Chinese authorities. She did not elaborate.

Park’s crossing comes just months after North Korea freed two U.S. journalists arrested in March and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and “hostile acts.”

Former President Bill Clinton traveled to Pyongyang to bring the journalists home in August as North Korea dexterously used their detention as a negotiating card with Washington amid a standoff over its nuclear programs.

Pyongyang waited four days before announcing on March 21 that they had been detained.

Park’s letter to Kim Jong Il, one of two he was carrying, asked that he open the North’s borders to humanitarian assistance and put an end to political prison camps.

“Please close down all concentration camps and release all political prisoners today,” said the letter, according to a copy posted on Pax Koreana’s Web site.

North Korea holds some 154,000 political prisoners in six large camps across the country, according to South Korean government estimates. Pyongyang has long been regarded as having one of the world’s worst human rights records, but it denies the existence of prison camps.

In a second letter, Park calls for Kim to immediately step down, noting starvation, torture and deaths in North Korean political prison camps.

Park’s parents Pyong and Helen Park, who live in Encinitas, California, said Sunday they last heard from their son in a Dec. 23 e-mail, in which he wrote of “incredible miracles.”

“Know that I am the happiest in all my life, incredible miracles are happening for the liberation of North Koreans right now,” Park wrote in the message, which they showed to The Associated Press. “I am thankful to Jesus because of the opportunity to serve His holy purpose.”

Earlier, Pyong Park quoted his son as saying before the journey he was “not afraid to die, as long as the whole world, all every nation pay attention to the North Korea situation, my death is nothing.” The senior Park spoke to San Diego’s KFMB television.

Jo said two guides, who he described as North Korean defectors, filmed Park’s crossing. One has returned to Seoul, but the other remains in China and is demanding payment for the footage and refusing to hand it over, he said.

Jo, who has been the source for most information about Park, initially requested anonymity, citing the sensitivity of the situation, but is now speaking by name.

Other activists in South Korea said Park had become known over the last year in Seoul human rights circles for his religious fervor and passion for helping North Koreans.

Church services were held over the weekend in the United States, where worshippers prayed for Park’s safe return.

The Rev. John Benson at Park’s church in Tucson said he is a shy but likable man who has worked with the poor in Mexico and is constantly helping people.

“You have to understand that for this guy, when it comes to the Lord, he’s very, very serious,” he said. “Unusually serious.”

About 100 people attended a candlelight vigil for Park at Palomar Korean Church in the San Diego suburb of San Marcos, Calif., where his parents are parishioners.

“Robert is doing what God has called him to do,” the Rev. Madison Shockley said at the vigil Sunday night. “We call this speaking truth to power.”

Associated Press writers Cara Anna in Beijing, Walter Berry in Phoenix, Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles and Elliot Spagat in San Marcos, California contributed to this report.