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

SEOUL, Dec. 26 — 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. (PNA/Yonhap)

DCT/rsm

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