Activist breaches N. Korean border for human rights campaign: activists

SEOUL, Dec. 26 (Yonhap) -- A Korean-American human rights activist illegally
crossed a river into North Korea from China on Christmas Day in a bid to raise
public awareness of Pyongyang's human rights abuse and directly deliver a related
message to its leader Kim Jong-il, his fellow activists here said Saturday.

According to the activists who claim to be members of a coalition of more than
100 groups focused on the North's defectors and human rights condition, its head
Robert Park crossed the frozen Tumen River at around 5 p.m. on Friday.
The 28-year-old carried a letter with him for the North's leader calling for the
opening of the tightly-controlled border for the shipment of food and medical
goods and closure of all concentration camps for political prisoners, they added.
One of the activists, who requested anonymity, quoted witnesses as saying that as
he passed through the river Park, a Christian, shouted "I am an American citizen.
I am bringing God's love." But he was not stopped by the North's border guards,
the activist argued.
There has been no news from North Korea on Park.
The coalition plans to stage a series of protest rallies in New York, South
Africa, Japan, and other nations later this week to urge Pyongyang to improve the
human rights condition for its 23 million people.
No accurate data on the North's human rights situation are available as the
communist nation strictly controls its border. But the U.N. and global human
rights groups say that citizens there have no freedom of speech and dissidents
suffer torture and even death without trial.
(END)