In a recently released memoir, Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae
writes about his harrowing imprisonment in North Korea, where he was
arrested on charges of unauthorized proselytizing. Originally sentenced
to 15 years of hard labor, Bae was released in two. But he remains the
longest-held American detainee to date.
Since returning to the United States in 2014, Bae has been vocal about
his experience, which for the first month included as many as 15 hours
of daily interrogation.
“I felt like an insect, tangled in the spider web,” Bae said of his
imprisonment. “Every time I moved it got messier, with no way out.”
North Korea’s totalitarian leaders didn’t appreciate the criticism.
This week, officials in Pyongyang blasted Bae, calling him a “filthy
object” and a “Judas,” and threatening to halt diplomatic dialogue on
the release of two other American citizens currently in their custody.
“As long as Kenneth Bae continues his babbling, we will not proceed
with any compromise or negotiations with the United States on the
subject of American criminals, and there will certainly not be any such
thing as humanitarian action,” the North’s KCNA news agency said on
Monday.
“If Bae continues, U.S. criminals held in our country will be in the
pitiful state of never being able to set foot in their homeland once
again,” the report added.
Critics note North Korea often uses the plight of prisoners to attract
high-profile officials from the United States, who rarely visit the
well-sealed kingdom otherwise.
The U.S. State Department discourages citizens from visiting North
Korea, “due to the serious risk of arrest and long-term detention,”
warning of “unduly harsh sentences, including for actions that in the
United States would not be considered crimes.”
In January, police in Pyongyang arrested American college student Otto
Warmbier when he tried to pilfer a propaganda poster of the late Kim
Jong Il. He is still being held. Another American, Jeffrey Fowle, was
detained for six months after he left a Bible in a nightclub bathroom.
Other “hostile acts” for tourists in North Korea include shopping at
retailers not approved for foreigners, talking to locals, taking
pictures without official permission, and bringing pornography into the
country.
Meanwhile, North Korea is fuming over 12 of its own citizens detained in South Korea.
The Koreas are locked in a bitter dispute over the alleged abduction of
a dozen North Korean waitresses, with Pyongyang accusing South Korea’s
National Intelligence Service of kidnapping the women, while Seoul says
they willingly defected. The women have been in custody since early May
but have not yet made public statements or appeared in court. Officials
had scheduled a closed-door hearing for this week in Seoul’s Central
District Court but later postponed it when they realized the women would
not testify. Some say the waitresses are keeping quiet for fear of
backlash against their relatives in North Korea.
“They say our children defected, making their own free decision,” said
So Thae Song, father of one of the detained waitresses. “I can’t accept
this.”
Almost 30,000 North Koreans have defected to the South since the Korean
War ended in 1953, but it remains a sensitive topic. While many North
Koreans flourish outside their home country, others face significant
struggle. According to the BBC, suicide rates among North Korean
defectors surged from 7 percent to 14 percent last year.
Courtesy: WORLD News Service
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