North Korea: Nine young Christians disappear
Nov 27 2007
Postings >> North Korea

Nine young Christians who have disappeared in North Korea are feared to have been arrested as spies.

Security officials took the unusual step of holding a press conference in September to announce the arrest of unnamed 'native citizens working for a foreign intelligence service'.

The Voice of the Martyrs USA now says it believes the so-called spies were in fact a group of Christians who ran a portrait photography business in North Hamgyong province. They have all vanished without trace. The group, who had registered their business with the authorities, were mostly in their 30s. It is believed that 'espionage equipment' seized by security officials was in fact the Christians' cameras.

Meanwhile, Yoo Sang-joon, a co-worker of RI partner Helping Hands Korea (HHK), has been held in a Chinese jail for helping his North Korean compatriots seek asylum abroad.

Yoo Sang-joon, a former refugee now in his mid-30s, was arrested in Inner Mongolia, for assisting refugees in August. He was due to go on trial yesterday (November 26). His supporters hope that, because he is now a South Korean citizen, he will be deported to his adoptive home. The other options – jail in China or repatriation to his native North Korea – are of much greater concern. Yoo lost his wife and youngest son to famine in North Korea; his other son, who was 10, died in the Gobi desert, trying to escape with his father.