Park Sang-hak

Born in 1968 at Hyesan, Park grew up in a privileged family in North Korea. Park Sang-hak attended Kim Chaek University studying IT. After graduating, he worked at Kim Il Sung Youth Alliance.[3] He met with other members of the community every Monday for political classes and Saturday self-criticism sessions.[4]

Park's grandmother, returning from a rare visit to Japan, told of how much happier people were in other countries. He began to hear from fellow students, who had been chosen to study in other communist countries, share stories of the outside world. He discovered people in Europe did not have to do self-criticisms each week, which had been a great source of stress. Yet, he still had no desire to leave. He continued to work in Kim Il Sung Youth Alliance, got a girlfriend, and got engaged. He was preparing for his planned wedding.[4]

Then one day in the summer of 1997, Park received a message from a Chinese man. He had come on behalf of Park's father, who was in Japan working for the government. His father realized the family was in danger, and he wanted them to leave. His father discovered the scale of the famine in North Korea. Fearing fresh purges of officials in the Workers' Party, he sent for his family to leave. Suspecting a trap, Park demanded proof from the Chinese man, such as pictures of his father. It took two months for this to be arranged.[3]

Once they had proof, Park took his mother, brother, and sister and headed for China.[3] After bribing North Korean guards to look the other way, Park and his brother swam across a river into China, while their mother and sister floated across the river using an inner tube. They were picked up on the other side of the border by a car, as arranged by his father, and the whole family flew on false passports to South Korea.[5]

When he came to South Korea, he enrolled at Seoul National University. He was able to study different political theories. He was able to compare the North Korean system to the democratic system of the South. He restudied Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il and also studied South Korean presidents Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee. He could have lived comfortably as a researcher at the Mobile Institute, but he felt some responsibility. He felt as an intellectual he had responsibility to be a part of this movement. The reason why he engaged in these activities was because he was angry at the North Korean system.[3]

During an interview with the George W. Bush Institute's "Freedom Collection", Park claims that in 2003 he learnt that his fiancée had been beaten so badly, she was left unrecognizable, and that his two uncles were beaten to death, and his cousins were stripped of their wealth, reducing them to street beggars. Park also claims that his relatives were found guilty by association and therefore punished. Park claims that these experiences left him angry, leading to him quitting his job and becoming an activist.[3]

In 2006, Park became the chairman of the Democracy Network against North Korea Gulag. As of 2013, he is the chairman of Fighters for a Free North Korea.[1][6]

In April, 2015 Park was detained, as protestors clashed with South Korean police over their attempts to airlift thousands of copies of The Interview into North Korea.[7][8]

In July 2020, Park authored an op-ed in The Washington Post, alleging harassment by the Moon Jae-in administration. He wrote that his home address had been leaked, his bank accounts investigated, and that he had been banned from international travel by the South Korean government in response to his human rights advocacy. Park wrote, "In the hope of appeasing the North, Moon is impeding the work of activists fighting the North’s human rights violations."[9] Following this article, Park received support from international human rights groups, including the North Korea Freedom Coalition, which called on the Moon administration to end its "harassment" of Park. Park's supporters noted that the Moon administration's actions appeared to conflict with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which South Korea is signatory.[10]

He appeared at far-right internet forum Ilbe Storehouse and he declared himself to be an Ilbe member in 2013.[16] He supported far-right pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon and attended Jeon's National Revolutionary Party inauguration ceremony.[17][18] He was charged on November 25, 2020 with beating and throwing bricks at producers and crew from the Seoul Broadcasting System on June 23.[19][20]

In May 2013, Park was presented with the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent by the Human Rights Foundation.[12]

Wikiquote has quotations related to Park Sang-hak.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Park Sang-hak.

• Park Sang-hak Freedom Collection interview