The night before Phillip Buck made his last trip to China, his family begged him not to leave. The 66-year-old missionary and Seattle-based pastor was going, as he had been doing for the last decade, to shepherd North Korean defectors to South Korea. “Please, can you not go there anymore? Please stop. You are old enough to be retired. Stay home with your grandchild and us. Just spend time here. You can send them money or pray for them, or arrange something here,” his daughter Maria Yoon pleaded. He already had one close call in 2002, when Chinese authorities raided his apartment and confiscated his passport.

“He said, ‘No, I have to be there. I can’t just sit here and wander around, wondering about what would happen if I’m not there. They’re not going to have enough funds to live on. They’re not going to have enough food. So, I’ve got to go,’” recounted Yoon. “So we said, ‘Please be careful.’ Sure enough, he got caught.”

By his own count, and one that has been confirmed by another North Korean human rights activist, Buck has sheltered more than a thousand North Koreans in China and helped about a hundred get to South Korea safely. Because the Chinese government considers North Koreans economic migrants and not political refugees, helping them is considered illegal human trafficking.

They are joined by Suzanne Scholte of the Defense Forum Foundation, which sponsored the event on Capitol Hill.

During yet another attempt to move a group of North Koreans from China to a third country, Buck was arrested by Chinese authorities in May 2005. As Buck had warned them, the family knew that, if he were caught, he could be jailed indefinitely. But after a 15-month incarceration, the Chinese government released Buck in August 2006.

After returning to the United States, Buck gave a presentation on Capitol Hill describing his experience. There were no tales of Chinese water torture, or other physical or mental punishment by his captors. But there were interrogations and sleep deprivation.

 

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Late last year, former South Korean businessman Choi Young-hun was released from a Chinese jail after being imprisoned for almost four years. On Jan. 18, 2003, in what has come to be known as the Yangtai Boat incident, he was arrested, along with fellow countryman and photojournalist Jae-hyun Seok, during a botched attempt to find safe passage for 60 to 70 North Koreans planning to escape to South Korea by way of Japan. Seok, who was released in 2004, and Choi, are just two of a growing number of activists who have been arrested and incarcerated for helping North Koreans escape. In December, three members of LiNK (Liberty in North Korea) were arrested in China for sheltering defectors. They were deported back to the United States in January. Several activists, including Korean Americans, remain in Chinese prisons today. Steve Kim, a businessman from New York state, who provided funds for defectors in China, was tried, convicted and has been in jail since September 2003. Buck said they were held in the same prison.