Global News Journal
Beyond the World news headlines
Interview with North Korea border crosser Robert Park
(Photographs by Lee Jae-won)
North Korea said on Tuesday it had detained a U.S. citizen who entered its territory, apparently confirming a report that an American activist crossed into the state to raise awareness about Pyongyang’s human rights abuses. Robert Park, 28, walked over the frozen Tumen river from China and into the North last Friday, other activists said. The Korean-American told Reuters ahead of the crossing that it was his duty as a Christian to make the journey and that he was carrying a letter calling on North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to step down.
Park had an exclusive interview with Reuters last week before starting on his journey. The following are excerpts from the conversation. He requested that the comments be held until he was in North Korea.
Reuters: Why are you planning to go into North Korea?
Robert Park: The North Korean human rights crisis by murder rate is the worst in the world. An estimated 1,000 people a day die by starvation and starvation is a murder case. North Korea has been sent more food aid than any nation in the world but the food has not gone to the people who need it. So this is murder.
But not only that, there are concentration camps in North Korea that are of the same brutality as in Nazi Germany.
Honestly, I do not understand why certain people are outraged by what Mr Park has done. I mean come on, we live doing things we want to do and I’m sure none of us would want to be ridiculed by it. He has done things which he wanted and desired to do not just for his OWN benefits but others as well, in his own way. Of course he cannot make great changes since he isn’t the PRESIDENT nor a politician but at least he has done something within his own power to do something that’s worth living for him. Then tell me, what’s so wrong about that?