SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea acknowledged Tuesday it had detained an American for illegally entering the reclusive country, news welcomed by relatives of an Arizona missionary who feared they would never hear from him again after he sneaked across the border.
Activists say they last saw Robert Park as he slipped across the frozen Tumen River into North Korea on Christmas Day, carrying letters urging the country’s absolute leader to step down and free the hundreds of thousands of people held in political camps.
After four days without any word, relatives of the 28-year-old Korean-American said Tuesday they were relieved when the communist country finally announced it had a U.S. citizen in custody — though analysts say Park’s actions are likely to be seen as hostile to the regime and could draw a long prison sentence.
“My fear was that they say they don’t know anything about it and may get rid of him secretly,” Manchul Cho, an uncle of Park, said in California. “Once they recognize it, that’s really good.”
The two-sentence dispatch from the official Korean Central News Agency said an American was being investigated after “illegally entering” the country on Christmas Eve. The report did not identify the man, but activists and family believe it is Park. There was no immediate explanation for the discrepancy in the date of entry.
In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said: “The DPRK government has confirmed it is holding a U.S. Citizen pending an investigation. We will continue to work through the Swedish Embassy, our protecting power in Pyongyang, to seek consular access to this American citizen.”
Cho, a Los Angeles psychiatrist, said he hopes North Korea will deport Park, a devout Christian, noting that a long incarceration would only galvanize critics of the communist regime.
The Rev. Madison Shockley, a Park family pastor in Carlsbad, Calif., also called the announcement positive news.
“Without acknowledging his presence, they could do anything and we’d never hear from him again. They could have said ‘we don’t know who you’re talking about,”’ he said. “Now, by acknowledging, they have accountability for it.”
The Rev. John Benson, pastor at Life in Christ Community Church in Park’s hometown of Tucson, Arizona, supported Park’s self-proclaimed mission to draw attention to the situation in North Korea.
“Drastic situations call for drastic measures. We all need to wake up and not pay lip service to North Korea,” Benson said. “We need to take action, and that is what Robert is doing.”
North Korea’s criminal code punishes illegal entry with up to three years in prison.
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