Name Robert Park | Role Missionary | |
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Robert Park (born 1981) is a Korean-American missionary, musician, and human rights activist. A peace advocate and supporter of Korean reunification, he is a founding member of the nonpartisan Worldwide Coalition to Stop Genocide in North Korea and a frequent columnist for South Korea's largest English newspaper, The Korea Herald. In December 2009 he was detained in North Korea for illegal entry after crossing the Sino-Korean border on Christmas Day to protest against the country's human rights situation. He was released in February 2010 after being detained for 43 days. He reported having suffered torture during his detention.
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Early life
Park was born in Los Angeles, California. His Korean name is Park Dong-hoon (박동훈), and his grandparents were prominent Christians in North Korea before Korea's division. He spent much of his early life in California, Mexico and Arizona, where in 2007 he was ordained as a missionary by a non-denominational Church. Prior to his involvement with North Korea-related work, Park was active as a missionary in Sonora, Mexico, where he had assisted in the organization and delivery of humanitarian relief over several years.
A 2014 book published by a South Korean think tank indicates Park took vows of poverty and celibacy as a young adult and lived the life of a secular monk. He came close to committing his life to a monastery, being influenced by the charitable deeds and writings of nuns and ascetics. However, deeming service to the disadvantaged while remaining within the world more effectual, he opted for following much of the discipline of monastic life while steering clear of oftentimes divisive religious organizations. He read and was influenced by Simone Weil and Dietrich Bonhoeffer.
Detention in North Korea
Since 2008 Park has been involved with humanitarian work in support of North Korean refugees. He had become intimate friends with numerous North Korean defectors and was actively protesting North Korea's human rights violations within South Korea. He had organized numerous human rights demonstrations and conducted a hunger strike in autumn of 2009. On December 25, 2009, he crossed the Chinese border into North Korea by walking across a frozen stretch of the Tumen River. He was quickly apprehended by North Korean border guards for illegal entry. In a media interview conducted prior to his journey and published after his arrest, Park said he believed it was his duty as a Christian to do whatever he could to protest against human rights violations in the country, and that he was entering North Korea to call forcefully for the release of political prisoners, who he has argued through numerous articles are victims of genocide and crimes against humanity as defined under international law.
While under arrest, Park made a public confession and apology for his actions. On February 5, 2010 the North Korean government announced that it had pardoned Park. He was deported by plane to Beijing, China, from where he was then flown back to the United States. He later recanted his confession as having been made under duress, and reported having suffered torture and beatings during his detention. He was hospitalized for PTSD on multiple occasions following his detention, sometimes spanning a number of months.
Post-release
As a victim of North Korean torture, Park is preparing to file a lawsuit in the U.S. Federal Court under the Torture Victims Protection Act of 1991.
His writings on the North Korean human rights situation have been published in the Harvard International Review, The Washington Post, Haaretz, San Jose Mercury News, Asia Times, South China Morning Post, National Post, The Diplomat, World Policy, Columbia Journal of International Affairs, The Hill, Future Korea Journal, The Korea Times, and numerous other publications. He is a contributor to World Affairs Journal and a regular columnist for The Korea Herald.
On December 19, 2011, Genocide Watch, an international NGO and human rights watchdog, published a report which quoted heavily from a 2011 article penned by Park for the Asia Times, entitled "North Korea and the Genocide Convention." The paper concluded North Korea was actively committing genocide as defined by the UN Genocide Convention. Park has repeatedly called for concerned persons and organizations to increase financial support towards North Korean defectors, who are able to remit money back to their families in the North, potentially making possible an organized movement to halt atrocities.
Park is firmly anti-war and advocates consistently for support and outreach to the North Korean people, whom he regards as victims of the forcibly installed Kim family dynasty. His closest friends are reportedly North Korean refugees.