American captured by North Korea

[Razgovory]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/north.korean.american.held/index.html

I imagine the state department would really prefer if people stopped wandering into hostile countries.

(CNN)  -- North Korea announced Tuesday that it is holding an American who illegally entered the country on Christmas Eve, possibly a Korean-American missionary who told relatives he was trying to sneak into the isolated communist state.

The state-run Korea Central News Agency said the man was taken into custody after entering North Korea from China on December 24 and was "now under investigation by a relevant organ."

It provided no details, but the description appears to match the case of 28-year-old Robert Park, an Arizona man reported to have entered the country illegally to bring a message of "Christ's love and forgiveness" to North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

"He loves you and wants to save you and all of North Korea today," reads the letter, a copy of which was posted on a South Korean Web site last week. "Please open your borders so that we may bring food, provisions, medicine, necessities, and assistance to those who are struggling to survive. Please close down all concentration camps and release all political prisoners today, and allow care teams to enter to minister healing to those who have been tortured and traumatized."

Park's parents told CNN affiliate KFMB that their son was willing to risk his life to deliver that message.

"He said, 'I'm not afraid to die as long as the whole world, every nation, pays attention to the North Korea situation,' " said his father, Pyong Park.

Monday, the U.S. State Department said it was concerned by reports that Park had gone into North Korea but could not confirm them.

"We don't have any independent confirmation about either the report that he crossed over or his whereabouts," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. Washington and Pyongyang have no diplomatic relations, but Kelly said the Swedish Embassy -- which looks after U.S. interests in North Korea -- has offered to try to find out more.

North Korean authorities take a dim view of people who enter its territory without authorization.

Two American journalists who were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March faced a 12-year sentence at hard labor, but were released after a meeting between Kim and former U.S. President Bill Clinton in Pyongyang.

Guy's kinda like Mishka.

[HisMajestyBOB]

They'll probably send him back without a visit from Clinton. The guy sounds too crazy even for Kim Jong Il.

[Josquius]

The news said he was a human rights person. This is....well lets say I have less sympathy. Just a nutter.

[Martinus]

Christians. 

[Caliga]

The state-run Korea Central News Agency said the man was taken into custody after entering North Korea from China on December 24 and was "now under investigation by a relevant organ."

Sorry, Clinton's not interested. 

[Slargos]

Christians. 

Say what you will, jackass, but this guy is risking his life to help people.

What do you believe in that you're willing to risk your life for?

[Caliga]

this guy is risking his life to help people.

[Slargos]

this guy is risking his life to help people.

He believes that's what he's doing.

It doesn't matter if it's true or not.

Of course, I don't expect you to be able to comprehend such an idea. 

[Razgovory]

So do the muslims.  Who cares?

[jimmy olsen]

this guy is risking his life to help people.

[Slargos]

So do the muslims.  Who cares?

Muslims aren't people. 

[Caliga]

So do the muslims.  Who cares?

That's exactly the point I was going to make.  The 9/11 guys really believed they were helping things, too.  OMG HEROZ

[CountDeMoney]

I really wish those people wouldn't do this sort of thing.

All missionarys should be required to watch Rambo.  That'll put some starch in their socks.

[jimmy olsen]

So do the muslims.  Who cares?

That's exactly the point I was going to make.  The 9/11 guys really believed they were helping things, too.  OMG HEROZ

Spreading the word about love and forgiveness equals mass murder now? If the 19 hijackers had simply spread the word about Allah and opened a charity then it would be similar.

[Caliga]

Spreading the word about love and forgiveness equals mass murder now? If the 19 hijackers had simply spread the word about Allah and opened a charity then it would be similar.

I shouldn't have used that analogy as I should have known people would think I was trying to approximate the two events, which I'm not.

My point is that just because someone thinks they are doing good does not mean that they are doing good.  I think this is something society widely agrees with me on, or else we would be freeing and praising people who murder abortion doctors in the name of Jeebus, rather then sending them to prison for life.

Part of my reaction here is that I take a dim view of most missionary activity, especially when they try to mask their intentions by pretending they want to help people.  Missionaries are salesmen for Jesus, Inc.