40-some defectors held in a Thai Immigration Headquarter Prison entered a fasting campaign due to the delay in their passage to the U.S.
Free North Korea Radio (FNK) reported on the 11th, citing the words of a defector Lee Sang Gohn (pseudonym), who has been waiting 9 months in an immigration prison to go to the U.S., “The waiting period of 40-who have been waiting in a Thai Immigration Headquarters Prison has been delayed without a reason, so we protested and started a fasting campaign.”
FNK revealed Lee’s statement, “Along with 17 defectors who are currently being held in an Immigration Headquarter Prison in Bangkok, where I am, and 20-some defectors who are being detained in an outside hotel are planning to hold a fast.”
Lee said, “We asked the U.S. and the Thai Administration why the defection to the U.S. have been delayed, but have not heard a satisfactory answer from anyone. We could not wait without a promise, so started to have a fasting campaign and put our conditions on the line.”
He revealed that all of the defectors, since the evening of the 10th, entered the fast by affixing the conditions on their heads and on the walls, such as, “Send us to the U.S.,” “We are not the criminals,” “The U.S. administration should reveal its clear position of whether or not it has the intention to genuinely receive the defectors as refugees.”
Moreover, Lee collected the views of the defectors and announced via radio an appeal to the world’s media and the U.S. administration. In the appeal, they expressed that they were “political refugees who have been seeking freedom and happiness and opposing Kim Jong Il’s dictatorship.”
They revealed, “When we heard that the U.S., whom we knew as the source of all kinds of suffering and American coyotes, will protect the defectors who are struggling on the crossroad between life and death and lead us to the path of freedom, we thought that was funny enough. While hearing news from the outside world, we realized the Kim Jong Il regime’s deceitfulness and reactionary character and that the U.S. is the true democratic country.”
He also said, “The reason why the defectors chose to go to the U.S., where there are language barriers, no resettlement programs, and a foreign nation which does not provide resettlement money or housing like South Korea is not for self-comfort, but in order to hold a fight of sacrifice in rescuing the North Korean fellow brethren who are groaning under Kim Jong Il’s despotic regime.”
He also made a case for their difficulty, saying, “We came to Thailand only believing the U.S. administration’s pledge to receive defectors, but the administration has delayed this without any reason. The defectors who are spending 8 months to 2~3 years in asylum prisons have been suffering from all kinds of diseases.”
