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While The Media Gushes Over North Korea At The Olympics, An American Deprived Of His Father Speaks Out

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by Ryan Pickrell

  • North Korea is still holding three Americans prisoner
  • Tony Kim was arrested last April for allegedly attempting to overthrow the regime, but he has not been formally convicted
  • His son Sol Kim hasn’t heard from him in months and is asking people to remember his dad as they watch the Olympics

While the media focuses on North Korea’s Olympic “charm offensive.” one American is begging people to remember his father, a prisoner of the North Korean regime.

Western media is fascinated by North Korea, everything from the “sphinxlike smile” and “low-key beauty” of Kim Jong Un’s younger sister to the “amazing” army of North Korean cheerleaders, but the Kim regime’s gross human rights violations have taken a backseat in Olympic coverage.

North Korea is still holding three Americans captive.

Sol Kim, son of Tony Kim, has not seen or heard from his dad in nine months. “As you gather with your with your family and friends to watch the Olympics, will you remember my dad? My dad was arrested last April in North Korea, and we don’t know what has happened to him,” he said in a plea on Facebook.

Tony Kim, a professor at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology was detained for allegedly “committing criminal acts of hostility aimed at overturning the DPRK.” He had just wrapped up the semester when he was arrested at the airport. He has not yet been formally convicted as North Korea has not held a trial for Kim, but even if he does appear before a court, it will likely be a show trial rather than an actual display of justice.

“My family and I long to make contact with my dad,” Sol Kim told Fox News, adding, “We want to tell him that he’s soon going to be a grandfather.” His brother and sister are both expecting their first children soon.

The Trump administration is working to secure the release of Kim and the other American prisoners.

 

This past weekend, Vice President Mike Pence led a campaign to counter North Korea’s efforts to hijack the Olympics and spread pro-regime propaganda. His message was lost as his efforts received significantly less coverage than the activities of North Korea’s Olympic delegation. While in South Korea, Pence met with the father of American college student Otto Warmbier, who died last summer after a year in captivity in the North, as well as defectors who risked their lives to escape the Kim regime.

“The American people stand with you for freedom, and you represent the people of North Korea, millions of which long to be free as well,” Pence told the defectors he met in South Korea. Ji Seong-ho, the remarkable young defector who appeared at President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address, embraced Fred Warmbier at the meeting.

Liberty in North Korea, an organization dedicated to helping North Koreans find freedom abroad, told the world that while Kim Yo Jong made headlines, there are a number of North Korean people who are actually worth knowing. These included people like Hyeonseo Lee, who witnessed her first public execution at seven, and Joseph Kim, who lost loved ones while growing up in a time of great famine.

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