“According to the Republic of Korea constitution and international law, the North Korean leadership is less a ‘regime’ and closer to the world’s worst gang of human rights-abusing criminals,” Robert Park, the Korean-American Christian activist who was released in February, 2010 after 43 days in North Korean captivity has told the latest issue of Monthly Chosun.
Park, in a scathing criticism of states and individuals, adds in the interview, “The Kim Jong Il regime, China, Bill Richardson; they are all figures obstructing the liberation of the North Korean people. They are wicked and bad people.”
“Hitherto, more than 3 million people have died in North Korea,” Park explains. “Kim Jong Il has not shared a fortune in aid with the people; he has only used it on weapons development.”
Therefore, “The fate of 20 million citizens being held hostage is “everyone’s responsibility,” he asserts, calling North Korea today “the worst act of genocide since the Holocaust,”
“Talking to the Kim Jong Il regime is like selling your soul to the devil,” Park goes on, calling for the international community to change its ways of dealing with the North Korean leadership, to put “the people’s benefit first.”
Talking about his experiences inside North Korea and since his release, Park says he does not have any health problems and is now eating well. However, when asked about the torture he suffered in North Korea, he says it troubles him, that “every time it comes up, I am reminded of the impulse to commit suicide.” Park, a devout Christian, says he found himself praying for Kim Jong Il’s death, but then changed his mind, instead asking for his own death.
“In North Korea, there is a video tape of the sexual torture scene,” Park also explains. “They said when they sent me out, ‘Now Robert can’t do anything. Let’s show it to the whole world. We (North Korea) have won.’ They must have expected me to commit suicide as soon as I was released, right. Frankly, they still scare me now. But when I thought of the North Korean people and defectors, receiving greater pain than I, I couldn’t die.”
“Even if North Korea spreads that tape around the world, I don’t care,” Park adds, defiantly. “People may see me as dirty, my relationships may be damaged, but I can overcome it.”
Park also explains in the interview how shortly after his release he spoke with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who apparently suggested, “Were you to speak nicely about North Korea, I might be able to save Gomes.”
Aijalon Mahli Gomes became the second devout Christian American in as many months to cross the Tumen River in an effort to draw attention to human rights abuses in North Korea when he entered on January 25th, 2010, precisely one month after Park.
However, Park says, “Saving a friend could have hurt my North Korean compatriots more. In the end, I came to the conclusion that I couldn’t go along with killing my North Korean compatriots, so I rejected his suggestion.”
