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**TeveVikep** · 01-05-2010, 07:22 AM

Dr. Norbert Vollertsen is a German MD who worked as a medical volunteer in North Korea for 18 months, 1999-2000, before being labeled an "anarchist" for protesting human rights abuses in a letter to DPRK officials. His protest led to his expulsion to China, but he left immediately for Seoul where he continued to work as a human rights activist. He has interviewed and treated hundreds of North Koreans both within the DPRK and as refugees.

For his medical services in the North -- which included donating skin grafts to a burn victim (no scalpels used -- just a colleague with a razor blade) -- and prior (of course) to his his 2000 deportation he was awarded the "Democratic People of Korea's Friendship Medal." This allowed him access to a private car, minus an official handler, and enabled him to tour the country as he pleased. At checkpoints he simply presented his DPRK drivers license, flashed his official Friendship Medal, and guards allowed him to pass.

Vollertsen has since become a professional pain in the ass to the governments of both North and South Korea. He has campaigned non-stop on the issue of human rights in North Korea while mercilessly criticizing the South Korean government for its complacency (in his view). In 2005 he performed a neat trick, in briefly becoming the only persona non grata on the entire Korean peninsula. He was deported from South Korea in June of that year for actions such as releasing balloons, radios attached, directed at the North, and for attempting to toss medical supplies over the DMZ fence. He was later allowed to return to Seoul.

Here is Dr. Vollertsen's take on Robert Park's actions, along some contrasting statements from a former State Department official:

"Christian tests Pyongyang's resolutions," Asia Times Online (5 Jan 2010):
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LA05Dg01.html

[snip]

"The US government can't ignore the plight of citizens who are in trouble abroad," Fitzpatrick noted, "but I doubt the White House or State Department will be inclined to want to give away anything to gain Park's freedom, especially since he might decide in the future to do it again. It's not so much as embarrassment as an unnecessary encumbrance."

As far as Vollertsen is concerned, though, Park is accomplishing his mission by garnering publicity abroad even if he gets nowhere in spreading the word inside the North. Moreover, Vollertsen believes foreign media coverage will eventually bring about his release.

"You and your colleagues are his life insurance," he said. "He has already achieved media coverage about human-rights abuses in North Korea." If "people start to ask why he was so 'crazy'," said Vollertsen, the proper answer is that "Jesus Christ was also very radical and called crazy".

Nor does Vollertsen think Park's presence will compromise attempts at negotiations with the North. "I hope that there is a huge diplomatic issue," he said, with "a controversial debate in all the newspapers and blogs calling him an idiot and making fun about his insanity' - and more people willing to follow his example."

Fitzpatrick disagreed. "One can't help but sympathize with Park's moral courage," he told me, but might Kim Jong-il decide Park's life was not worth sparing if he were otherwise to go home with tales of his struggle to convert the heathen in Kim's kingdom? "He certainly is on the side of the angels," as Fitzpatrick put it, "but that could become literal."

[end]

01-05-2010, 07:22 AM	#9
TeveVikep Join Date Oct 2005 Posts 483 Senior Member	Dr. Norbert Vollertsen is a German MD who worked as a medical volunteer in North Korea for 18 months, 1999-2000, before being labeled an "anarchist" for protesting human rights abuses in a letter to DPRK officials. His protest led to his expulsion to China, but he left immediately for Seoul where he continued to work as a human rights activist. He has interviewed and treated hundreds of North Koreans both within the DPRK and as refugees. For his medical services in the North -- which included donating skin grafts to a burn victim (no scalpels used -- just a colleague with a razor blade) -- and prior (of course) to his his 2000 deportation he was awarded the "Democratic People of Korea's Friendship Medal." This allowed him access to a private car, minus an official handler, and enabled him to tour the country as he pleased. At checkpoints he simply presented his DPRK drivers license, flashed his official Friendship Medal, and guards allowed him to pass. Vollertsen has since become a professional pain in the ass to the governments of both North and South Korea. He has campaigned non-stop on the issue of human rights in North Korea while mercilessly criticizing the South Korean government for its complacency (in his view). In 2005 he performed a neat trick, in briefly becoming the only persona non grata on the entire Korean peninsula. He was deported from South Korea in June of that year for actions such as releasing balloons, radios attached, directed at the North, and for attempting to toss medical supplies over the DMZ fence. He was later allowed to return to Seoul. Here is Dr. Vollertsen's take on Robert Park's actions, along some contrasting statements from a former State Department official: "Christian tests Pyongyang's resolutions," Asia Times Online (5 Jan 2010): http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/LA05Dg01.html [snip] "The US government can't ignore the plight of citizens who are in trouble abroad," Fitzpatrick noted, "but I doubt the White House or State Department will be inclined to want to give away anything to gain Park's freedom, especially since he might decide in the future to do it again. It's not so much as embarrassment as an unnecessary encumbrance." As far as Vollertsen is concerned, though, Park is accomplishing his mission by garnering publicity abroad even if he gets nowhere in spreading the word inside the North. Moreover, Vollertsen believes foreign media coverage will eventually bring about his release. "You and your colleagues are his life insurance," he said. "He has already achieved media coverage about human-rights abuses in North Korea." If "people start to ask why he was so 'crazy'," said Vollertsen, the proper answer is that "Jesus Christ was also very radical and called crazy". Nor does Vollertsen think Park's presence will compromise attempts at negotiations with the North. "I hope that there is a huge diplomatic issue," he said, with "a controversial debate in all the newspapers and blogs calling him an idiot and making fun about his insanity' - and more people willing to follow his example." Fitzpatrick disagreed. "One can't help but sympathize with Park's moral courage," he told me, but might Kim Jong-il decide Park's life was not worth sparing if he were otherwise to go home with tales of his struggle to convert the heathen in Kim's kingdom? "He certainly is on the side of the angels," as Fitzpatrick put it, "but that could become literal." [end]
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