The Mysterious Robert Park Email

Having just recently turned 52, German-born doctor Norbert Vollertsen continues – from his adopted homeland of Seoul – to fight the North Korea human rights good fight. Recently, that entailed the forwarding of an e-mail he claims to have received from Robert Park, the AZ activist who crossed over into the Hermit Kingdom on Christmas Day, 2009, only to be released February 5th.

Seemingly dated February 25th, the Park e-mail read as follows:

Am very sorry to you. This is my first direct email – I have been tormented and I apologize for my insane behaviour lately. A friend has been managing my email account.

I don’t call people easily because of my spiritual condition – I’ve had bouts of rage and intense temptations to kill myself (because of inner torture) since leaving DPRK. Here is what I need by tomorrow evening, if you can help me:

- DPRK flag, lighter;
- A notebook of picture evidence of the North Korean Human Rights Crisis and Genocide (I will be going through the pages while speaking in the interview);
- Two Signs:
“CHINA – INTERNATIONAL LAWBREAKER” and
“CHINA – STOP MURDERING REFUGEES”

The imminent media appearance hinted at by Park in the forwarded e-mail was, apparently, a Friday February 26th press conference in New York City. But per reporter @bostonsunny (via the Seoul-based organization Pax Korean), Park decided at the last minute to cancel this event.

So there you have it: the hint of a first non-KCNA sanctioned public communication from Robert Park, followed by silence. Did he encounter more health problems (a February 24th news report quoted Park‘s father as stating that he was under the care in L.A. of “many doctors”)? Has he chosen instead to focus on a possible book deal, like Laura Ling and Euna Lee who – save for a September 2nd, 2009 Op Ed in the @latimes – are separately holding their experiences for hardcover consumption? We will most likely soon find out.

Update – 03/05/10: Although an uncorroborated 2/27 blog item that claimed Robert Park was being held against his will in a Long Beach mental hospital was removed at the request of the Park family 3/2, the AZ Reverend who ordained Park – John Benson – has now told Voice of America
something similar. The family however, via its official site FreeRobertPark.org, has yet to confirm any these details.

Filed under: Activists

Searching for the Next Soundbyte

In the past few weeks, nine North Korean refugees have sought asylum at the Danish Embassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, while another 11 hopped on a small barge and crossed over during the evening of October 1st into South Korean waters. Both of these cases hint at a key piece of the puzzle in keeping the struggle against the Hermit Kingdom‘s human rights violations on the front U.S. burner: the visually arresting soundbyte.

Just the other day, a woman who defected from North Korea with her husband and son in 1998 – they bribed guards with cigarettes and then evaded gunfire – said the arrest at the border on March 17th of Laura Ling and Euna Lee was ultimately a good thing. Coming just a few days after Ling restated the @CurrentVanguard mission as being to shine a light on dark places, this woman said the incident had shined a light on the issue.

But how to keep it going? Monday, October 5th will mark two months since Laura, Euna and Bill combined for the best ever North Korea humanitarian crisis soundbyte; in the interim, discussion has gradually shifted to things like how the trio would make a great Halloween costume theme for the appropriate two-women, one-male adult trick-or-treaters. Hilarious and very true, but this is not the sort of coverage that is going to keep the land-of-no-Halloween-treats in the minds of you, me and our neighbors.

All this to say that it’s too bad, at least to my knowledge, that there is no ready footage of those eleven barge-riding North Koreans or nine Hanoi Hilton-ing defectors that could be rebroadcast on U.S. cable news channels. Images of overloaded boats headed for South Florida helped brand the Cuban refugee crisis and as we move forward on the North Korean front, the media mill will need to be fed in order for coverage to reach beyond the nuclear politics of it all.

Filed under: Media

Some Strange Signs

A couple of developments today point to the idea that moving forward, North Korea‘s capital city of Pyongyang may become even more of a more privileged, isolated stronghold. That would be the dedication of the brand new, foreign-funded Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), the latest achievement in the remarkable life of Korean-American success story James Kim; and the announcement by New York and Bangkok-based travel company Remote Lands that they are now offering $1,000-a-day luxury tours of the Hermit Kingdom.

The details of Remote Lands‘ approach seem even more surreal than the recent sight of Bill Clinton meeting with the much shorter Kim Jong-il. The company boasts that accommodations “are arranged in the best hotels available, with suites specially enhanced with European linens, feather pillows and duvets and other exceptional amenities. Fine food and wine will be brought in, and the best chefs will be on hand to create the most delicious Korean, Japanese, Chinese and Continental cuisine. North Korea is not for everyone, but for those adventurous few who have been almost everywhere else in the world, it is the last frontier and a real eye-opener to witness in person.”

The arrival of PUST is a bit more organic. Once classes begin in a few months, the goal is to eventually grow the student body to 600 undergraduates and cultivate the semblance of an industrial R & D complex on campus. And though it may be standard for an American college, the fact that PUST will offer Internet access to North Korea‘s future bright minds is, well, mind-boggling.

Meanwhile, the “150-Day Battle”, a motivational campaign designed to prod North Koreans in the rest of the country to up their super-human efforts to super-super-human, draws to a close tomorrow with the populace none too impressed, and barely able to muster the energy for another “100-Day Battle” beginning September 23rd. It all adds up to another big reason why Kim Jong-il may be acting crazier and more erratic than normal; he realizes that the days of being able to keep his 19th century citizens isolated from 21st progress are numbered.

Filed under: Commentary

Cain and Enabler

Around this time last summer, China was basking in the afterglow of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, with many hoping that the overall experience would move the powerhouse nation to start doing something about its atrocious human rights record. But when it comes to the complicated flow of North Korean refugees over the border into the northeastern regions of the country, things have gotten worse.

First we learned that footage seized from @current cameraman Mitch Koss in March was used by Chinese authorities to close down secret orphanages, chase out terrified female sex workers and expel at least one prominent refugee activist back to Seoul. Now comes an even more horrible reminder of the dysfunctional Big Brother-little brother relationship enjoyed by China and North Korea – a frightening @Chosun_Ilbo article about worsening conditions at a North Korean detention facility in Chongori.

You know you’re in trouble when a defector says the notorious NK prison camp at Yodok is a piece of cake to survive compared to Chongori, but that’s just what someone shares in the piece. Remember, it was also @Chosun_Ilbo that worked undercover for ten months to produce an excellent documentary about the dangerous and circuitous route through China and beyond that escaping North Koreans must follow to get to South Korea.

If China didn’t allow North Korean spies to pose as fellow refugee prisoners in its detention facilities…; if China allowed international aid workers to tend to refugees along the border…; if China didn’t send back refugees to the Hermit Kingdon… it would be a different story. But for a whole bunch of reasons, China chooses to help Kim Jong-il maintain his reign of terror, and until that changes, the humanitarian crisis that goes along with it will be mired in many more tales of unspeakable horror.

Filed under: Human Rights

I’m a Celebrity, Get Them Out of There!

Not too long ago, the Chairwoman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, Suzanne Scholte, pointed out a key problem with activism on behalf of the dire North Korean human rights situation. Namely, that while Darfur has George Clooney and Mia Farrow, and Tibet counts on Richard Gere and the Dalai Lama, the problematic half of the Peninsula has no celebrity drawing much needed attention to it.

As we now know, Michael Jackson took a personal interest in the Laura Ling-Euna Lee situation a few months before his untimely death, telling friend @gothamchopra to look into whether Kim Jong-il might be an MJ fan. It’s tantalizing to think what could have been possible if Jackson were still alive today and somehow became committed to the North Korean cause.

Would it make sense for someone like Janet Jackson to take on that challenge, in the name of her brother? Certainly, the idea of PSAs featuring her and the spirit of Michael, all for the purpose of helping the children of the Hermit Kingdom, is a good one. Another Ling-Lee derived fit could be Ashton Kutcher and lovely wife Demi Moore, pulling the power couple charity move a la Brangelina.

North Korea’s pop culture realm champion does not necessarily need to be a huge name; witness what Sally Struthers has been able to do for the Christian Children’s Fund and Penn Foster Schools. But at this juncture, a celebrity deciding lending a hand to the NK good fight would be a tremendously impactful asset.

Filed under: Commentary

More like a Fright Paper

For most, the logical starting point as far as reading about the horrors of North Korea’s labor camps is refugee Kang Chol-hwan’s harrowing 2001 memoir The Aquariums of Pyongyang. Though the prose itself is a little rough, there’s no denying the power of Kang’s survival of ten years of hard labor that began in Yodok in 1977, when he was just nine-years-old.

But for a wider-ranging and more recent look at the Hermit Kingdom’s egregious human rights record, I highly recommend the Korean Institute for National Unification (KINU) ’s White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea. Released just last month, it outlines in staggering detail the fear-based tactics that are necessary to prop up an autocratic, family dictatorship.

From the 500 or so South Koreans still held captive in North Korea to the varied testimony of unnamed defectors, the KINU document is hands down the best primer on what is happening now as opposed to then. The report provides equally valuable information about the country’s criminal code, charter of rights and other sociological frameworks.

This is not a quick browse on the computer screen. At 464 pages, the White Paper is something to download and print or, alternatively, order from KINU. There is also a fascinating Appendix chronology of all 2008 events related to the North Korea human rights situation, such as the fact that October 13th marked the first time Russia has granted refugee status to a defector who made their way to the country via China.

Filed under: Human Rights

The 64,000 Won Question

The Big Picture book ends of Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s misadventures in North Korea are the possible unintentional endangerment of refugees and refugee helpers through the seizing of materials at the border (vtideotapes, cell phone(s), notebook(s)), and the future role these journalists may play in the plight of the people they were covering. According to aid workers, no stream of female refugees has a higher rate of sex trafficking – 80% to 90% – than that of North Koreans fleeing their country.

Yesterday, Claudia Rosett – an in-house journalist for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies – made the rather preposterous suggestion that Ling and Lee should donate the entirety of expected proceeds from book and movie deals, speaking engagements and the like to non-profits working with North Korean refugees. Rosett is no stranger to the cause; as a former @WSJ reporter, she oversaw the editorial pages of the Asian editions from 1986 to 1993 and has won awards for her coverage of the United Nations and the Tiananmen Square uprising.

Still, given the capitalistic principles that govern this country and her former employer, 100% of the proceeds is too much to expect or demand. A much more reasonable and logical suggestion would be to divert 10% to a charity of the women’s choice, or their own eventual non-profit venture. (It’s presently unclear whether @current continued to pay Ling and Lee‘s salaries throughout the ordeal; one assumes they did.)

Though its only been a week since Ling and Lee were officially pardoned by the “Dear Crisis PR Leader,” a number of people have already questioned the fact that they may enrich themselves from a still not entirely detailed illegal border crossing. The @Current gals are of course free to do whatever they choose, but skimming a bit off the top for those still struggling at the bottom would be both an honorable way to inspire the masses and build on the tremendous goodwill that rose up on their behalf.

Filed under: Media