By David Chircop
For the Enterprise
The Rev. Phillip Jun Buck could have been starting a 20-year sentence in a Chinese prison.
Instead, the 68-year-old Korean-American missionary from Everett was welcomed home with balloons and bouquets of flowers from family and friends at Sea-Tac International Airport on Monday night, Aug. 21.
Wearing a baseball hat and dark sunglasses, Buck said returning home was like being in a “dream state.”
He said he gave prayers for North Korean inmates he was incarcerated with. Now the cell that he spent the last 15 months in is quiet.
“They know the old man has finally returned home,” he said, as his youngest daughter Grace Yoon of Lynnwood translated.
Worshipers at the predominately Korean-American Bethany Church in Edmonds have prayed for Buck’s safe return, receiving updates on his situation every Sunday for the past 15 months.
His daughter, Grace Yoon, 30, translates Korean sermons into English at Bethany. Buck’s son, Jamin Yoon, 35, runs its Sunday school.
“It’s so hard to express my feelings right now,” Jamin Yoon said. “I’m so happy.”
Buck was arrested by Chinese authorities in May 2005 for attempting to sneak North Korean refugees into South Korea.
The pastor’s four adult children waged a quiet campaign to persuade Chinese authorities to release their father.
Buck was found guilty in a Chinese court in December. He faced up to 20 years in prison, but was instead deported from the country and banned from returning to China.
Yoon said his father’s style of dress Monday night was done to shield his identity in case the senior citizen wanted to return to clandestine missionary work.
“It doesn’t look like he’s going to quit,” Jamin Yoon said.
His plight gained notoriety in this country, particularly among conservative Christian groups that rally against North Korean religious oppression. Buck’s case was the topic of Congressional testimony on human rights in North Korea.
Buck was providing shelter and work for North Koreans in northeastern China when he was charged.
The Chinese government does not view the flood of thousands of North Koreans across its borders as a humanitarian crisis.
In spite of widespread famine in North Korea, it looks at the immigrants as “economic refugees” not unlike the way the United States sees illegal immigrants from Latin America.
Buck, who fled his home and family in North Korea as a child, never forgot his roots and is trying to give back to his homeland, daughter Grace Yoon said.
“He’s very passionate about helping North Korean refugees,” she said. “He would just give everything for them.”
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