Robert Park sent to mental hospital

We don't know if these stories are true, but several blogs have been following Park's evolving development and according to the latest, the erstwhile missionary has been drugged and taken by force to a mental hospital, classified as "gravely disabled".

Tis a very sad and tragic ending.

No matter your opinion on Robert Park's maneuvers, his heart seemed to be in the right place. And in the end, his misguided attempt to free North Koreans singlehandedly may have resulted in his own demise.

Or rather, let's hope it is not quite his demise, but that he will in time recover.

According to the website Free Robert Park, "Robert Park, as a result of suffering torture in the DPRK 'North Korea' is currently being held against his will at Community hospital of Long Beach in California, United States.

"He was drugged and taken by force into the mental hospital and has been classified Gravely Disabled, 'unable to provide for your own food, clothing, and shelter.' He has been there since Feb 27, 2010. He requests all people worldwide to demonstrate, protest, and take urgent, radical, united action to liberate all North Koreans in North Korea and in China immediately. He also requests all money withdrawn from Kim Jung Il regime and redirected to the refugees and North Korean refugee led organizations."

A prior entry in the same blog and also here showed a copy of a letter by Park saying, "Am very sorry to you. This is my first direct email — I have been tormented and I apologize for my insane behaviour lately. A friend has been managing my email account.

"I don’t call people easily because of my spiritual condition — I’ve had bouts of rage and intense temptations to kill myself (because of inner torture) since leaving DPRK."

Torture

When Robert Park returned from his regrettable sojourn through the North, he returned to civilization looking thin, pale and stone-faced. When he reunited with his parents, he is said to have burst into tears.

It was obvious to some that Park had been tortured into making confessions and his demeanor upon arrival appeared to testify to that opinion.

In a piece appearing in the Chosun Ilbo last month, it described how many undesirables are tortured and coerced in the DPRK.

A former senior N Korean official, a defector, said, "Ninety-nine percent of these so-called press conferences in the North are faked through torture and coercion."

"The State Security Department is in charge of such cases," the paper said. "Investigators from the psychological warfare office reportedly attempt to penetrate the inner world of detainees or suspects through an alternate series of torture and conciliatory persuasion. The investigators keep the detainees awake until they surrender.

"North Koreans are said to shudder in horror at the mere mention of the underground prisons of the State Security Department, because unimaginable brutality is committed there.

"Those who have been sufficiently scared are supposed to read out a script or act as directed in a staged press conference. Jang Hae-sung, a former reporter for Korean Central Television who defected to the South, recalled that when he worked in Pyongyang, he saw a fake press conference for kidnapped South Korean fishermen. At the time, the press conference hall was jam-packed with government agents involved in South Korean affairs. The press conference went on exactly according to a script, he said."

Bad logic

Why torture Robert Park?

For us, it would seem to be poor PR to torture a man and then let him loose. Surely, the fact that he had been tortured will be revealed and the North only made that much more monstrous to the rest of the world.

Why not just let him go from the outset? Or put on a grand charade and trick Park into believing the North is really a wonderland of religious freedom? Or just detain him indefinitely? The logic of torture seems to make little sense, at least for us.

Of course, it would be unreasonable to expect rational behavior from totalitarian regimes, even any government (to some extent), frankly.

As to what sort of torture Park was subjected to, we surely do not know and can only imagine. But whatever it was, causing a Christian man to want to kill himself (which most Christians believe is a sin) must surely have been something very, very bad.

Rev. Madison Shockley at the Palomar Church once called Park's actions, "speaking truth to power".

We wonder, what would this good reverend call Park's condition today? What is he now informing his flock about "speaking truth to power" so-called?

To be sure, while Park acted alone that cold December day, there are individuals and organizations that should also be held to account.