Pastor Kim Dong-chul, arrested by the North Korean government in October 2015 on charges of espionage and sentenced to death, later had his sentence reduced to 10 years of hard labor. He was miraculously rescued by the U.S. government and returned in 2018. Reporter Lim Yo-hee 

 On the 3rd of this month, at the "Democracy, Newly Inaugurated, One Year" press conference for foreign correspondents held at the Blue House's Yeongbingwan, the public heard a surprising story.

A foreign correspondent asked the President about South Koreans detained in North Korea. However, the answer received was, "This is the first I've heard of it." Even the National Security Advisor appeared flustered, unable to provide a proper explanation.

The events of that time are well-described in a commentary by Choi Bo-yoon, the senior spokesperson for the People Power Party, on the 9th. He stated, "The scene where President Lee responded to a foreign correspondent's question about our six detained citizens by saying he had never heard of it, in itself, showed the collapse of national leadership." He added, "The foreign correspondent who asked the question received a 'warning' about their personal safety and was even criticized as a 'disseminator of fake news' by a former official from the Moon Jae-in administration."

Furthermore, Choi, the senior spokesperson, said, "Currently, six of our citizens, including missionaries Kim Jeong-wook, Kim Kook-gi, and Choi Chun-gil, and Messrs. Ko Hyun-cheol, Kim Won-ho, and Ham Jin-woo, have been detained in North Korea for over 10 years. This is an issue that has already been publicized in the international community, with the Ministry of Unification providing compensation and the UN repeatedly urging their release."

Here, we need to remember the name Kim Dong-chul.

Born in 1953, he is a Korean-American businessman who was arrested by the North Korean government in October 2015 on charges of espionage and sentenced to death. His sentence was later reduced to 10 years of hard labor, and he was miraculously rescued by the U.S. government and returned while serving time in a camp.

The Trump Administration's Active Efforts to Rescue Its Citizen

Upon learning that Pastor Kim was detained in North Korea, the first Trump administration moved quickly. Then-U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with Kim Jong-un in Pyongyang and secured a pardon for three American citizens detained in North Korea.

Having left North Korea, Pastor Kim, along with fellow Americans Kim Sang-deok and Kim Hak-song, arrived at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington D.C. at 3 a.m. on May 10, 2018. The U.S. government's efforts, which had spanned 17 months of tireless work to secure the release of its citizens, culminated in this happy ending.

How can we describe the emotions of that moment? The three individuals released from North Korea at that time issued the following joint statement:

"We express our deepest gratitude to the United States government, President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and the American people for bringing us back to our homeland. And thank God, and all our families and friends who prayed for our return. May God bless America, the greatest nation in the world."

When met on the 9th at an undisclosed location in Seoul, Pastor Kim Dong-chul was experiencing discomfort in one leg due to the aftereffects of torture in North Korea. During his arrest and six-month interrogation by North Korean authorities, he underwent torture a total of eight times, including three waterboarding sessions.

Pastor Kim stated, "It's incomprehensible that the President and the relevant ministry are unaware of our citizens being detained in another country. If my nationality had been Korean, I would still be there. What is the president's mission? Is it not to protect the citizens?" he said, delivering a sharp criticism to the South Korean government.

17 Years in North Korea and Espionage Activities

On May 10, 2018, when Pastor Kim Dong-chul was released from North Korea and arrived in the United States, U.S. President Donald Trump personally met him at the airport. Yonhap News

He confessed in an interview with Japan's NHK that he had engaged in espionage activities for the U.S. CIA and South Korea's National Intelligence Service during his 17 years in North Korea.

Pastor Kim did not start his espionage activities from the beginning. In 2000, he moved to China with his wife for missionary work, but seeing business opportunities, he applied to enter North Korea and began operating a hotel in the Rajin Special Economic Zone from 2001.

North Korea meticulously investigates foreigners upon their entry. They can only work there after passing thorough examinations without any suspicion. While conducting business with permission from North Korean authorities, commuting between China and North Korea, a CIA agent approached Pastor Kim and asked him to engage in espionage activities. Knowing the risks involved, he initially refused.

"Since I was not easily persuaded, the CIA mobilized the Director of Planning of the South Korean National Intelligence Service to appeal to my patriotism, saying that only I could do it. Some people may think I did it for the operational funds, but I was not facing any financial difficulties because I had a large hotel business in North Korea. Instead, I collected intelligence at my own expense."

Pastor Kim accepted the CIA's offer purely out of patriotism. He worked with loyalty to both his homeland, Korea, and his country of citizenship, the United States. He stated, "The information that Korea wanted and the information that the United States wanted were different."

"While engaged in espionage, I began to closely observe North Korean society. However, there were limitations when working alone. I enlisted the help of locals. They had connections within the General Reconnaissance Bureau and helped me understand North Korea's trends. They provided insights into public sentiment, military intelligence, and information related to the regime."

Tragically, some of them were discovered by the authorities and executed. Those who were not caught by the Ministry of State Security are still alive because Pastor Kim has remained silent.

North Korea is a Society of Strict Individuality

Recently, Pastor Kim Dong-chul launched a YouTube channel called 'The Borderlander's North Korean Stories.' He has been producing content for two months with Pastor Kim Young-il (left), who is assisting him in South Korea. Reporter Lim Yo-hee

"North Korean people operate on an individual-to-individual basis. They don't do things collectively. Since North Korea is such a heavily surveilled society, getting entangled unintentionally could lead to everyone's death."

When asked about South Koreans detained in North Korea, Pastor Kim said, "I had heard about South Koreans being detained in North Korea, but I have never met any. I met North Korean war prisoners and overseas Koreans repatriated to North Korea, but I never saw any South Koreans. I don't know if they are alive or dead, or even their whereabouts. They are not in the camps either. If they were in the camps, it would be easier to find them, but since they are not there, it is regrettable, but the probability of them having died is high."

Pastor Kim intentionally frequented local bathhouses, not the hotel sauna, to gauge public sentiment. There, he met North Korean war prisoners captured during the Korean War. There were two such prisoners in Rajin, where he was located.

"Around 2009, when I came to South Korea, I visited the family of a North Korean war prisoner living in Chungcheong Province. When I showed him his photo, an elderly woman confirmed that he was her brother. However, her face showed clear signs of apprehension. So, I had to explain, 'I am here to tell you about your brother's situation and to inform you that he is alive. I am not here to ask for money.'"

He also met Koreans who had boarded repatriation ships and Japanese individuals at public bathhouses. Including those who were abducted, seven such individuals were living in Rajin. Abe had attempted to rescue them, but his efforts were thwarted by his death during a shooting incident.

Pastor Kim also had an encounter with Otto Warmbier, an American youth detained in North Korea.

"I could hear conversations in English from the interrogation room directly across from my room, but I couldn't see his face. Then, just once, as I was coming out after exercise (according to the rules), I saw a tall young man slumped over and entering the interrogation room. At that time, Warmbier was still walking on his own feet."

Pastor Kim confessed that he also acted as a double agent under the direction of the North Korean Ministry of State Security.

"Around 2014, the Rajin Ministry of State Security ordered an investigation into South Korean spies operating in Dandong. Those detained in North Korea were likely captured in 2013-2014. I visited a Korean restaurant in Dandong to inquire, but no one knew about them. I learned through South Korean broadcasts who had been apprehended. When I went to Dandong, there was not a single person who could truly be called a spy. The Koreans there were missionaries dispatched by churches, but due to intense surveillance by China, they struggled to carry out their missionary work effectively. Dandong is a border area, and surveillance is particularly severe. From my apartment, Sinuiju was visible just across the way. Typically, missionaries would stay for about three months and return without any results."

Pastor Kim stated that sometimes missionaries would go out by boat and throw items towards North Korea. If their boat crossed into North Korean territorial waters, North Korean soldiers would take them and fabricate spy accusations. Therefore, he believes that those currently detained in North Korea are not real spies.

In March 2016, North Korea's Supreme Court sentenced detained American college student Otto Warmbier (center) to 15 years of re-education through labor for attempting to overthrow the state. Warmbier died six days after being repatriated to the United States in a coma in June 2017. AP 

 North Korea Wishes to Befriend the United States

According to North Korean residents, life was more bearable during the Kim Jong-il regime than under Kim Jong-un. However, it is true that the Kim Jong-un regime has become much more sophisticated externally, particularly in its desire to redefine its relationship with the United States.

"From my perspective, North Korea desperately wants to become friendly with the United States. They wish to improve relations with the U.S. more than with China or South Korea. They openly dislike and disregard South Korea's Juche followers. They have no intention of engaging with South Korea. Their focus is solely on the United States. Personally, I believe that peace will come to Northeast Asia only when North Korea becomes closer to the United States."

North Korea becoming a pro-American country? It sounds impossible, but Pastor Kim believes that if that were to happen, peace would come to the Korean Peninsula.

Pastor Kim stated that North Korea becoming friendly with the U.S. is "the only way to isolate China. In reality, the border fences between China and North Korea are becoming increasingly robust."

"North Korea does not like China. Kim Il-sung even left a will stating, 'Do not trade anything with China.' The North Korean regime has thoroughly sealed its borders from China. Although China has made efforts to befriend North Korea under the guise of good neighborly relations, North Korea has remained indifferent. There are no Chinese people in North Korea. They are all over South Korea."

In his view, South Korea is the one that is pro-China.

"South Korea's claim of being pro-American is merely a formality. South Korea is filled with Chinese students, Chinese workers, and Chinese goods. It can be said that China has virtually taken over."

When asked why China is making such an aggressive push into South Korea, Pastor Kim replied, "It is to advance into the Pacific through South Korea." He explained that China's path to the Pacific is blocked, and they must pass through South Korea.

Finally, Pastor Kim stated, "If you demand that North Korea abandon its nuclear weapons, it will never come to the negotiating table. Instead, we should focus on how to make North Korea and the United States become friendly. If North Korea is friendly with the United States, can it not be friendly with us? At that point, the nuclear weapons would become a means to check China rather than a threat to us."

Pastor Kim emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 26, earned a doctorate, and was ordained as a minister. During his 17 years in North Korea from 2001 to 2018, he received the Labor Medal for his hotel business, but in October 2015, he was arrested by the Ministry of State Security on charges of espionage and spent three years in a forced labor camp. The stories of that period, which spanned extremes, are well-documented in his book 'The Borderlander' (2019, Yerang Publishing, sold out).

Here, the borderlander refers to himself, who has experienced firsthand the politics, social systems, lives, ideologies, economies, militaries, and human rights of the free world and socialist countries while crossing the borders of four nations: South Korea, North Korea, the U.S., and China.

Recently, Pastor Kim Dong-chul launched a YouTube channel called 'The Borderlander's North Korean Stories.' He has been producing content for two months with Pastor Kim Young-il, who is assisting him in South Korea. Those who know him say that his broadcast activities will provide an opportunity for South Korean society to view North Korean society from multiple perspectives.

Furthermore, efforts are underway with the help of those around him to turn 'The Borderlander' into a movie. In this way, Pastor Kim Dong-chul is taking the lead in helping South Korean society understand North Korea. He anticipates the day when peace will descend upon this land.

Reporter Lim Yo-hee