Amid anticipation of an unprecedented Trump-Kim Jong Un talk, the son of a U. S. citizen detained in the reclusive nation stays positive.
Amid anticipation of an unprecedented meeting between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the son of a U. S. citizen detained in North Korea is trying to stay positive.
“I feel hopeful. I feel good. Perhaps progress can be made. At the same time, I was hoping that [the issue of] my dad and other detainees would have come up quicker…. Maybe that could be a top priority [now]. Nonetheless, it’s good news,” Sol Kim told ABC News about his father Sangduck “Tony” Kim.
Tony Kim is one of three U. S. citizens still being detained in North Korea. Meanwhile, Trump and South Korean President Moon Jae-in are both planning to meet their counterparts in the North in an as-yet-unscheduled meeting.
Though it is unclear whether the summit will hasten Kim’s release, former U. S. presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton utilized their visits to the reclusive nation to help secure the release of previous American detainees.
Tony Kim was arrested in April 2017 at an airport in Pyongyang as he was leaving the country after finishing his month-long teaching trip at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology (PUST), the only privately run university in North Korea.
Kim, a 59-year-old accountant-turned-professor at Yanbian University of Science and Technology in Yanji, China, had previously gone on at least seven short-term teaching trips to its sister school, Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, his son recalled.
Sol Kim said that when he had the opportunity to go on one of the trips as a teacher’s assistant several years ago, his father seemed to be enjoying his job, taking time outside of class to play soccer and volleyball with the students.
“He had a heart for the North Korean people,” said Sol Kim.
Sol Kim said he was expecting to hear from his father on the day he was supposed to fly out of North Korea but did not get any calls. Instead, the son learned from the family’s church pastor, who knew someone teaching at the school, that Tony Kim had actually been detained.
The family has not directly heard from Tony Kim since.
Haksong Kim, also affiliated with Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, was arrested the next month also as he was leaving the country. The school said in an official statement that he “was at PUST to do agricultural development work with PUST’s experimental farm.”
The statement also added that his “detention is related to an investigation into matters that are not connected in any way with the work of PUST.”
Pyongyang University of Science and Technology was founded by an evangelical Christian and was built entirely with funds from outside North Korea, according to the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a nonprofit organization. The school has more than 60 foreign faculty from China, the U. S., Canada, the U. K. and other parts of Europe, according to its website.
“It is slightly unusual that somebody who was teaching at PUST would be arrested,” said Lisa Collins, a fellow with the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
