U.S. welcomes N. Korea's decision to free U.S. activist: White House

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Yonhap) -- The United States Friday welcomed North Korea's
decision to release an American activist held after sneaking across the Chinese
border on Christmas Day to draw international attention to the North's human
rights lapses.

"We welcome the reports of North Korea's decision to release Robert Park," said
Ben Chang, deputy spokesman for the National Security Council. "North Korean
authorities informed us recently of their intention to do so and we are pleased
they are proceeding."
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said earlier in the day that
North Korea would release Robert Park, citing the "sincere repentance of his
wrongdoings," without elaborating on when he would be freed.
The 28-year-old Korean American reportedly said that he did not want to be freed
until North Korean leader Kim Jong-il releases all political prisoners, believed
to number in the hundreds of thousands, in several concentration camps.
The move comes amid reports that Wang Jiarui, head of the Chinese Communist
Party's international department, will fly to Pyongyang to lure North Korea back
to the six-party talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programs.
Meanwhile, North Korea has detained another American citizen who it said
illegally entered the North in late January.
U.S. officials have said they were seeking consular access to the person, who has
not been identified, through the Swedish mission in Pyongyang, which represents
U.S. interests in North Korea, with which Washington has no diplomatic ties.
In August, former U.S. President Bill Clinton met with Kim Jong-il to secure the
release of two American journalists detained months earlier for illegally
entering the North via China while reporting on North Korean defectors.
hdh@yna.co.kr
(END)

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