Tag: detainees

U.S. Soldier Facing Disciplinary Action Defects Across DMZ to North Korea

| July 19, 2023

Did not expect to ever see another Charles Robert Jenkins wannabe, but it has happened:

An American soldier facing military disciplinary actions fled across the heavily armed border from South Korea into North Korea, U.S. officials said Tuesday, becoming the first American detained in the North in nearly five years.

Two U.S. officials said the soldier detained was Pvt. 2nd Class Travis King, who had just been released from a South Korean prison where he’d been held on assault charges and was facing additional military disciplinary actions in the United States.

King, who’s in his early 20s, was escorted to the airport to be returned to Fort Bliss, Texas, but instead of getting on the plane he left and joined a tour of the Korean border village of Panmunjom, where he ran across the border.

At a Pentagon press conference Tuesday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did not name King, but confirmed that a U.S. service member was likely now in North Korean custody.

Stars & Stripes

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if Pvt. King is already regretting his decision? Did he not do a simple Google search to see what North Koreans due to American detainees such as Otto Warmbier who retuned home beaten and brain dead? What a headache for whoever his commander is.

Australian Student and Tour Operator Goes Missing In North Korea

| June 29, 2019

This sucks for this man’s family, but like I have said every time someone gets detained in North Korea, I have little sympathy for them. No one should be traveling to North Korea and supporting the Kim regime:

Australian student Alex Sigley is missing in North Korea.

The family of an Australian who vanished in North Korea in mysterious circumstances have broken their silence. 

Alek Sigley, 29, who is a postgraduate student at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang and a self-employed tour company operator, has not been seen or heard from by friends and loved ones for more than 48 hours.

He was identified in South Korean media overnight as having been taken into custody by North Korean officials.

Australian officials have been trying to confirm whether he has in fact been arrested or if there is some other explanation for his disappearance.

On Thursday afternoon, Mr Sigley’s family issued a statement confirming they remained unsure of his fate.

“As of 1pm (AEST), it has not been confirmed that Alek has been detained in the DPRK,” it said.

“The situation is that Alek has not been in digital contact with friends and family since Tuesday morning Australian time, which is unusual for him.

“Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is therefore seeking to confirm his whereabouts and welfare.”

“Alek is an Australian-born Asian scholar and traveller who has visited, studied and lived in several countries in Asia. Alek can speak Mandarin and Korean fluently along with some Japanese.

“He is studying for a Masters in Korean literature at Kim Il Sung University in Pyongyang. Alek’s family hope to re-establish contact with him soon.”

News.com.au

You can read more at the link, but hopefully he is able to return home alive and not tortured unlike what other detainees experienced from the Kim regime.

South Korean Man Repatriated After Running Away to North Korea

| August 8, 2018

Did Im Jong-seok run away from the Blue House?:

North Korea repatriated a South Korean citizen Tuesday through the border village of Panmunjom in a “positive humanitarian” move, Seoul’s unification ministry said.

In a message to Seoul a day earlier, Pyongyang claimed the 34-year-old, identified only by his surname Suh, illegally entered the country on July 22.

On Monday, the North’s Red Cross informed the South of a plan to send him back, and Seoul accepted the offer.

The North repatriated Suh via Panmunjom at 11 a.m. as scheduled, a ministry official told reporters.

He is under investigation by the South’s authorities into why and how he entered the North. He left for China before July 22, an informed source said.

The government views the North’s repatriation of Suh as “positive from a humanitarian perspective,” the official added.

But six South Korean nationals, including three missionaries, are still detained in the communist nation.  [Yonhap]

It is interesting that President Trump was able to get all the American detainees released, but Moon Jae-in has done nothing to get ROK detainees released.

Mike Pompeo Returning to the US With Three Americans Detained in North Korea

| May 10, 2018

It looks like Kim Jong-un has paid the price for admission to a summit with President Trump:

People watch a TV news report on screen, showing portraits of three Americans, Kim Dong Chul, left, Tony Kim and Kim Hak Song, right, detained in the North Korea at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Thursday, May 3, 2018. (Photo: Ahn Young-joon/AP)

President Trump announced on Wednesday that three Americans who were being held by North Korea have been released.

“I am pleased to inform you that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in the air and on his way back from North Korea with the 3 wonderful gentlemen that everyone is looking so forward to meeting,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday. “They seem to be in good health.”

Pompeo flew to Pyongyang on Tuesday to meet with Kim Jong Un ahead of Trump’s planned summit with the North Korean leader. Trump described it as a “good meeting” and said a date and time for his summit with Kim has been set.  [Yahoo News]

I am glad these guys are back and I am sure it is a relief for all the families involved, however I hope the media does not treat them as some kind of heroes.  I have said this repeatedly, but I have little sympathy for people stupid enough to travel to North Korea in the first place.  Anyone going to North Korea takes the chance of the regime detaining at anytime for the most arbitrary things in order to use them as political pawns.

Here are the three Americans that were detained and I would not be surprised if the real crimes all three of them committed was promoting Christianity in North Korea:

  • Kim Dong-chul: Supposed Christian missionary that North Korea accused of spying for South Korea.
  • Tony Kim: He worked at a university in China and was teaching a course at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST) for a few months before being detained at the airport when he attempted to fly back to China.  He was accused of the crime of trying to overthrow the government.
  • Kim Hak-song: He is an ordained as an evangelical Christian pastor affiliated with the Oriental Mission Church in Los Angeles. Like Tony Kim, he was working as a professor at PUST before being detained on unspecified charges.

Report Claims North Korea Near Releasing Three American Detainees

| May 4, 2018

This is why North Korea likes to detain Americans, they make great bargaining chips when negotiations like the ones going on now happen:

The U.S. government is looking into reports that three Americans detained in North Korea have been relocated from a labor camp to a hotel near Pyongyang ahead of a planned summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was no immediate confirmation of any change in the detainees’ status. Trump administration officials have pressed for their release as a show of goodwill by North Korea before the unprecedented U.S.-North Korea summit expected in late May or early June.

“As everybody is aware, the past Administration has long been asking for three hostages to be released from a North Korean Labor camp, but to no avail. Stay tuned!” Trump said in a Twitter post late on Wednesday.

CNN, in a report on Thursday, cited an unnamed source saying the release of the three men was imminent, adding that the groundwork for the move came two months ago when North Korea’s foreign minister traveled to Sweden and proposed the idea.

South Korean media reports on Wednesday quoted a South Korean activist as saying North Korea had relocated the three Americans from a labor camp to a hotel on the outskirts of Pyongyang. Choi Soung-yong, the activist, told Reuters that Kim Hak-song, Tony Kim and Kim Dong-chul were moved in early April following instructions from superior authorities, citing residents in Pyongyang.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link, but despite a clear risk of being a long term detainee for committing the smallest of offenses, we will probably continue to see Americans in future go over to North Korea and get detained.

Swedish Foreign Minister Says Release of US Detainees Should Not Be Precondition For North Korea-US Talks

| March 21, 2018

It appears the Kim regime plans to use these three Americans as bargaining chips as part of the upcoming negotiations before the Kim-Trump summit:

The release of three U.S. citizens held in North Korea should not be a condition for the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, Sweden’s foreign minister said on Monday.

The United States has no embassy in Pyongyang and relies on Sweden, the so-called U.S. protecting power there, to do consular work, especially to help Americans in trouble.

Asked about the three Americans, Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said: “I don’t want to have those elements involved in all of this … this is not a time to put up a lot of conditions and preconditions.”

The State Department’s recently retired envoy for North Korea said on Thursday he had urged North Korea to send a positive signal by releasing Kim Dong Chul, Kim Hak Song and Kim Sang-duk before the summit.  [Reuters]

You can read more at the link.

Another American Arrested and Detained In North Korea

| May 7, 2017

North Korea continues to build up their collection of bargaining chips and human shields in response to any potential negotiations or conflict with the US overs its nuclear program:

North Korea detained a U.S. citizen tied to a Christian-backed university in Pyongyang, state media said, just two weeks after arresting one of his colleagues.

The arrest on Saturday of Kim Hak-song for committing “hostile acts” brings the number of known U.S. citizens detained in North Korea to four, adding another twist to troubled relations between Washington and Pyongyang as the U.S. seeks ways to slow the North’s nuclear and missile program.

According to the report on Sunday by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency, Mr. Kim works for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, a university founded in 2010 by James Kim, a Korean-American Christian businessman.  [Wall Street Journal]

You can read more at the link, but it is just incredible to me that despite all these Americans being taken hostage in North Korea Americans keep going there.