The ‘Conversion’ of Missionary Robert Park

Saturday 6 March 2010 - Filed under Life Outside Work

A story that is even more dramatic – and yet somewhat low-key – than the return of American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea is that of Robert Park. Unlike the two female journalists who were captured and detained against their will, 28-year-old Korean-American missionary Robert Park wilfully and single-handedly crossed the border into the North on Christmas Day of 2009 to confront the communist regime and to “urge a change” in its leadership. The result: 43 days of hell during which he was beaten, tortured, and coerced into confessing just the opposite of what he wanted to preach and what he now knew and experienced first-hand.

Missionary Who Was Held In N. Korea Arrives In US (NPR, 7 Feb 2010):

The greeting took place in a private location but the family spoke to reporters briefly as they left the airport. A thin and pale Park — who flew from Pyongyang to Beijing after North Korea announced Friday he would be freed — wouldn’t speak and kept his eyes downcast while Paul Park told reporters his brother is in good condition.

Robert Park, of Tucson, Ariz., crossed the frozen Tumen River from China into North Korea on Dec. 25, carrying letters calling on leader Kim Jong Il to close the country’s notoriously brutal prison camps and step down from power. Those acts could have risked execution in the hardline communist country.

Before the Great Leader allowed him to return home, Robert Park reportedly made a public statement on the “truth” he learned during the visit:

North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency quoted Park as saying he was ashamed of the “biased” view he once held of the country.

Robert Park said he was now convinced “there’s complete religious freedom for all people everywhere” in North Korea, citing the return of the Bible he carried as he entered the country and a service he attended at Pongsu Church in Pyongyang, KCNA said.

“I would not have committed such crime if I had known that the (North) respects the rights of all the people and guarantees their freedom and they enjoy a happy and stable life,” it quoted him as saying.

A Chosun Ilbo (of the South) editorial offers a view of what really happened and how North Korea converts critical foreigners:

A former senior North Korean official who defected to the South said, “Ninety-nine percent of these so-called press conferences in the North are faked through torture and coercion.”

The State Security Department is in charge of such cases. Investigators from the psychological warfare office reportedly attempt to penetrate the inner world of detainees or suspects through an alternate series of torture and conciliatory persuasion. The investigators keep the detainees awake until they surrender.

But if Park was scared in the North, it would have been nothing compared to what North Korean dissidents suffer. Still, anybody from the free world would feel a lot more panic if they experience torture, however mild it is considered in the North.

The latest according to the JoongAng Daily is that Robert Park is now held at a psychiatric hospital in California:

… Park [is reported to have] trouble speaking as he deals with post-traumatic stress disorder and hasn’t been able to explain in detail what he’d gone through in North Korea.

I cannot even begin to imagine what he had gone through. This should not have happened at all and saying it was a reckless act would be an understatement. The net result, however, is that Robert Park sacrificed himself to highlight once again the value of freedom and basic human rights and how they are not distributed evenly across the world… Perhaps not exactly the way he intended, though. I do wish that Robert Park will eventually recover from the trauma and be able to work towards the reality he wanted to see as a young missionary.

In the 5th season of my favourite TV series The West Wing is an episode that addresses the difficulties faced by the people of North Korea. A young, gifted male North Korean pianist on a tour, closely watched by North Korean military attachés 24/7, is invited to the White House to give a concert. President Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen) is surprised when the pianist cleverly and secretly delivers a message that he wishes to defect while on U.S. soil. The President of the United States asks his aides to find a way, but soon realises that there is no politically justifiable avenue of granting such a wish. In the end, the pianist reluctantly accepts the bad news but chooses not to try anything “reckless.” Instead, he asks President Bartlet if he knows the meaning of “Han,” which, the viewer now remembers, is the title of the episode. In the closing scene, Bartlet reflects on what he learned before Claudia Jean Cregg (played by Allison Janney), one of his closest friends:

President Bartlet: He didn’t know what it was.
C.J. Cregg: What what was, Sir?
Bartlet: Freedom.
Cregg: You could have cancelled the concert.
Bartlet: There’s a Korean word ‘Han’. I looked it up… there is no literal English translation. It’s a state of mind. Of soul, really. A sadness. A sadness so deep no tears will come… Yet still, there’s hope.
Cregg: [Pauses and gets up] Good night, Mr President.
Bartlet: I got a call from Geneva 15 minutes ago. The negotiations are on hold. The North Koreans didn’t like the size of everyone’s flags at the table.
Cregg: [Sighes] Good night, Sir.

2010-03-06  »  JK