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| Activist crosses border into North Korea Missionary calls for Kim Jong-il to free political prisoners and give up powerA Christian missionary from the US has entered North Korea carrying a letter to its leader Kim Jong-il in order to call attention to the tens of thousands of political prisoners believed to be held in the communist state.Robert Park, a 28-year-old Korean-American, was videoed by colleagues walking across the frozen Tumen river into North Korea from China on Christmas Day. He is carrying with him a letter addressed to Kim asking him to release political prisoners and shut down the "concentration camps" where they are held.It was unclear whether Park had been arrested. Illegal entry into the country is punishable by up to three years in prison. The regime held two American journalists for five months earlier this year, before freeing them during a visit by the former president Bill Clinton.Park is a missionary from Tucson, Arizona, who works for Pax Koreana, a conservative Seoul-based group that calls for North Korea to improve its human rights record. "I am an American citizen. I brought God's love. God loves you and God bless you," Park was quoted as saying by one of the two activists who filmed him as he crossed the river and who spoke to Associated Press. He said they had last seen Park as he entered North Korea's north-eastern city of Hoeryong from the border late on Friday afternoon. The video footage is expected to be released today.North Korea holds some 154,000 political prisoners in six large camps across the country, according to South Korean government estimates. The country has long been regarded as having one of the world's worst human rights records, but it rejects outside criticism and denies the existence of prison camps."Please open your borders so that we may bring food, provisions, medicine, necessities and assistance to those who are struggling to survive," said the letter, according to a copy posted on the Pax Koreana website. "Please close down all concentration camps and release all political prisoners today."The activist said that Park also carried a separate written appeal calling for Kim to step down, noting alleged starvation, torture and deaths in North Korean prison camps. That second letter was addressed to the leaders of South Korea, China, the US, Japan and the United Nations. North Korea is expected to react strongly because Park raised the issue of its political system, said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University. Demanding that Kim stepped down was "a kind of hostile act" and "the North won't likely compromise on such an issue", Koh said, predicting it will take time to resolve.Kim wields absolute power in the communist state of 24 million people. Any acts seen as hostile to him and his leadership carry harsh punishment, said Choi Eun-suk, an expert on North Korean legal affairs at the Institute for Far Eastern Studies at Kyungnam University in Seoul.The US embassy in Beijing said it was looking into Park's case, but had no details. "His fate to us is unknown," said an embassy spokeswoman, Susan Stevenson. She said a charitable organisation, which she did not identify, had notified the State Department in Washington of Park's actions.The activist said Park came to South Korea in July and stayed there until leaving for China last week to enter the North. "I would not go to North Korea to live. Even if I die, world leaders should really repent for keeping silent [on North Korea]," Park said in Seoul before leaving for China, the activist said.The activist said Pax Koreana is affiliated with another organisation called Freedom and Life For All North Koreans, a coalition of advocacy groups for North Korean human rights. Park is a member of the broader group, he said. The coalition and other activist groups plan to hold rallies in New York, Tokyo, Seoul and other cities from today until Thursday.In August, North Korea released two US journalists sentenced to 12 years' hard labour for trespassing and "hostile acts". Their release came during a trip to Pyongyang by Clinton aimed at winning their freedom. Laura Ling and Euna Lee were captured by guards near the Tumen river in March while reporting a story on North Korean defectors.Park's reported entry comes weeks after North Korea held one-on-one talks with the US and signalled its willingness to return to international negotiations on ending its nuclear weapons programmes. Pyongyang said this month that it would try to resolve the remaining differences with Washington.From agency reportsNorth KoreaHuman rightsPeter Beaumontguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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The Rev George McKelvie My father, the Rev George McKelvie, who has died aged 97, was the second conscientious objector in Scotland to be jailed for refusing the second world war call-up. He spent eight months in Barlinnie prison in Glasgow in 1941, and remained a pacifist all his life.George was born in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, the second of three sons. He left school at 16 and worked for 13 years as a printer, but nurtured ambitions to train for the ministry. He graduated from Glasgow University with an MA in 1945, trained at the Scottish Baptist College, and began his first full ministry in 1946 in Fife.He moved south in 1950, anticipating greater receptiveness for his liberal theology and radicalism in England. His five churches in 40 years of ministry were at Leslie in Fife, Loughton in Essex, Luton, Stockport and Stocksfield, Northumberland. In the 1960s, the Baptist Times and the Missionary Herald employed him as an editor.George believed in the power of preaching and delivered clear and concise sermons. He was a man of action, proud to call himself an evangelist and a liberal, Christian socialist and nonconformist. He had an indefatigable faith and sense of mission.One summer evening in Edinburgh, in 1965, the McKelvie family, in holiday mood, were drifting with the crowds along Princes Street and happened across the Mound, a forum for oratory and debate. Pausing by the atheists' soapbox, George listened intently, becoming so incensed that he demanded: "Give me five minutes up there!" The atheist speakers agreed to let this awkward Christian occupy their soapbox. Afterwards George just said: "I should have done better."His Christianity was all about people. As industrial chaplain at Electrolux in Luton and Mirrlees in Stockport, he relished his weekly contact with the workforce, arguing the case for a society based on need and service. In the community and in the pulpit, he spoke the truth as he saw it. His sermon on taxation being a just and Christian sharing of wealth always caused a stir among the grander members of the congregation.George's partnership with his wife, Betty, was a central dynamic in his ministry. Betty's charm and perceptiveness complemented his idealism and enthusiasm. He was proud of Scotland and loved the swirl of the kilts and bagpipes. His ancestral roots were in Arran, where he and Betty enjoyed many holidays. A lifelong golfer, he regarded the game as a great stress-beater.George and Betty retired to Teignmouth, Devon, in 1983, where he continued to preach across the denominations. Betty died in 2005. He is survived by me, his daughter, Libby, and five grandchildren.Anglicanismguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |