Kim Dong-shik, a U.S. permanent resident and Christian missionary with family living in Illinois, was abducted in 2000 by North Korean agents in northeastern China and taken to North Korea for interrogation and imprisonment, according to testimony in South Korean courts. Kim, whose wife and two children are U.S. citizens, had raised the ire of the North Korean government by helping its citizens flee the repressive regime and by attempting to convert North Korean athletes who attended the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.
Back in January 2005, Senator Barack Obama and other Illinois lawmakers co-signed a letter to North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, describing Kim as a "hero" and demanding answers from North Korea about his whereabouts. The signatories warned that they would oppose North Korea's removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism—a longtime goal of the government in Pyongyang—until a "full accounting" of Kim's abduction was provided.
But within the last few years, the case has been largely forgotten as the Bush administration has pressed ahead on a diplomatic deal to end North Korea's nuclear program. The State Department has pretty much ignored the pleas of lawmakers and Kim's family for greater attention to the case. And Obama no longer believes that North Korea's removal from the terrorism list should be conditional on information about Kim.
Okay, but that still leaves a man unaccounted for, who is either rotting in a North Korea prison, or more likely, dead. The case of the only North Korea abductee with U.S. connections. Where the hell is Kim Dong-shik? Read about the story here: N. Korea's Abduction of U.S. Permanent Resident Fades From Official View.
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