Robert Park -- Why did he do it?

Author of North Korean Novel Speaks Out

By C. Hope Flinchbaugh
Special to ASSIST News Service

When US citizen Robert Park, 28, crossed the river into North Korea on Christmas Day 2009 carrying letters that call on the nation’s dictator to shut down the country's political prison camps and step down from power, he didn't sneak around in the dark biting his nails. He crossed the frozen Tumen River boldly shouting to its citizens something about love.

So when I am asked, “He knew the dangers. Why did he do it?” I answer, “Love.”

Love is not political, partisan, or proper. Sometimes it’s not even popular. But love is people and, if you ask Park, love is God. Love has emboldened people to do things that others wouldn’t consider. I think of it this way--is there someone in my life that I love so much that I’d courageously cross an icy river into the most evil regime on earth to rescue him or her? Robert Park has made me ask that question because he loves his human family enough to take the risk -- and live with the consequences, whatever they may be.

This isn't the first time that Park walked into unknown territory to show love to people. Park brought food and love to the poor in Mexico and even to those suffering in his native country, the United States. A friend of Park, Nancy Purcell from the Philadelphia area, told me that she spent hours with Park one day at a prayer gathering at The Mall in Washington, DC. They saw a homeless woman and Park spoke to her of the love of God for her and for her children. After speaking about the love, Park took action—he opened his wallet and gave the homeless woman his money.

Why North Korea? Life inside North Korea is hard to depict.

Imagine you walk outside tomorrow morning and see your neighbor on her hands and knees in her yard. She’s pulling up wads of grass with her hands and throwing the clumps into a basket. She tells you she’s hungry. What do you say to her? Maybe you'd call 911. Maybe you'd share your lunch or buy her groceries.

In reality, North Korean mothers and grandmothers are pulling grass clumps out of their yards so they can make grass soup for their families simply because there’s nothing else to eat. Yes, it’s hard to believe. And there is no 911, government fund, or neighbor with a lunchbox to help them.

Look at this picture given to me by the friend of a North Korean boy who we'll call Gilsu. He courageously crossed the Tumen River out of North Korea and into China when he was fourteen years old. He was asked to draw pictures of what life was like inside North Korea.

Gilsu writes, “We all became grass eaters.”

The truth? In time, people become poisoned by grass consumption and even turn a little green. Since 1995, more than 4,000,000 people have died from starvation, many from grass poisoning. Look up grass poisoning on a search engine and you'll find that it’s a disease that animals (not humans) get from eating too much grass.

So, if you'd happen to look over your picket fence tomorrow morning and see your neighbor furiously picking grass, would you obey the sign tacked up by the mayor that says, “Let Her Starve,” or would you leap over the fence and open your lunchbox?

Robert Park is not only ready to share his lunch; he’s ready to give his life.

“He was not afraid to die,” said Robert Park’s father, Pyong Park. “What he wanted was the whole world to know of North Korea's situation.”

Before he went to North Korea’s northern river border, Park did an interview with Reuters and asked them not to release the interview until he was inside. Reuters asked Park why he thought going inside would change things. Park responded, “I have to share their suffering. That is why I am asking every person who cares about North Korea, let us arise and let us demonstrate. Let us see mass demonstrations. This is not a personal agenda. I think I may not live much longer. My personal desire is to be married and to have a future. I am laying that all down because of Jesus Christ and because God loves these people--he does not want them to die.

(See: http://blogs.reuters.com/global/2009/12/30/interview-with-north-korea-border-crosser-robert-park/ )

So now we know why Park crossed the river. They say that most people fail in life because their wishbone is where their backbone should be. I think all of Park’s bones are in the right place.

Suzanne Scholte, chairman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition told me, “We were blessed to have Park as an active member of the North Korea Freedom Coalition especially focused on mobilizing prayer for North Korea. He went to Seoul to live with North Korean defectors and over the past year began a worldwide mobilization that included prayer vigils and demonstrations called Freedom and Life for All North Koreans which continues today especially on the 27th of every month.”

I would like to close with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., in which he said:

Cowardice asks the question - is it safe?
Expediency asks the question - is it politic?
Vanity asks the question - is it popular?
But conscience asks the question - is it right?
And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe,
nor politic, nor popular;
but one must take it because it is right.

Although these words were written many years ago, they can apply today to the courage of Robert Park who took a stand for love and now languishes in a North Korean prison

C. Hope Flinchbaugh is an author, literary agent, editor, and homeschooling mom from Pennsylvania. Hope has authored three novels based on true testimonies of religious persecution and revival in China: Daughter of China, Across the China Sky, and I’ll Cross the River. Hope’s latest novel, I’ll Cross the River, was released May 2008 and is based on factual stories of starving North Korean citizens who are desperately seeking food and freedom by crossing the Tumen River to escape into China. Hope authored Spiritually Parenting Your Preschooler, a nonfiction book that presents parenting tips and today’s school choices. She contributed to the Soul Matter Series and to a book titled, Our Heart to Yours, which is a compilation of teachings and includes such authors as Lisa Bevere, Heidi Baker, Babbie Mason, and Joyce Meyer. To set up an interview with Hope, or get information on how to order her books, please contact her at northkorea@comcast.net