Kim Dong-shik | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1947 |
| Disappeared | after January 16, 2000 North Korea (presumed) |
| Occupation | Christian minister |
| Known for | Abduction and likely death at hands of suspected North Korean agents |
Kim Dong-shik[a] (Korean: 김동식;Hanja: 金東植,[1] 1947 – disappeared January 16, 2000)[2] was aKorean-American Protestant minister who went missing inChina in January 2000. His missionary and humanitarian work in China had involved aidingNorth Korean defectors there, and evidence eventually emerged that theNorth Korean regime was responsible for his disappearance.[3][4][5] In 2015, a U.S. federal court awardeddamages to his family after determining that Kim had likely died in aNorth Korean prison camp after being abducted from China by North Korean operatives who regarded Kim's activities as a threat to the regime.[6][7][8]
Kim was born inSouth Korea in 1947. He moved toChicago, Illinois as a young man, becoming apermanent resident of the United States. He served as minister of the Chicago Evangelical Holiness Church.[2]
In the 1990s, Kim came to the attention of North Korean authorities by aiding North Korean defectors in China, and by evangelizing to North Korean athletes attending the1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.[5] In late 1999, Kim was in northeastern China, where he had established shelters and a school for orphaned and handicapped refugees.[9]
On January 16, 2000, Kim was boarding (or, according to some sources, was forced into) a taxi outside a restaurant inYanji, a Chinese city near theNorth Korean border, when unknown men jumped in after him and the vehicle sped away.[10][9] Although Kim's family suspected North Korean involvement in his disappearance, little solid evidence about his fate emerged until 2004, when a North Korean defector to South Korea told authorities he had seen Kim in a cell at theMinistry of State Security office inHoeryong – a North Korean town across the border from Yanji – shortly after his abduction. In 2005, aChinese national of Korean descent confessed in a South Korean court that he had aided North Korean agents to abduct Kim and transport him across the border to North Korea.[6][11][5]
In January 2005, a number of Illinois lawmakers, including then-senatorBarack Obama, jointly signed a letter to North Korea's ambassador to the United Nations, describing Kim as a "hero" and requesting information from North Korea as to his whereabouts.[5] Intelligence reports suggested that Kim had died on an undetermined date in a North Korean prison camp in the outskirts ofPyongyang.[10]
In 2009, Kim's son and younger brother, both U.S. citizens, brought a lawsuit against North Korea in a U.S. federal court, seeking damages for Kim's torture and murder. Although theForeign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) usually protects foreign governments from being sued in U.S. courts, an exception exists for countries designated asstate sponsors of terrorism, including North Korea.[b] North Korea did not respond to the lawsuit, which was initially dismissed by the court for lack of first-hand evidence that Kim had been tortured and killed by the North Korean regime. However, in December 2014, an appeals court overturned the dismissal, stating that evidence of North Korea's involvement in Kim's abduction, together with testimony from expert witnesses about widespread torture in North Korean prison camps, were sufficient for the family to seek damages.[7] On April 9, 2015, the court handed down adefault judgment that Kim had been abducted by North Korean agents, and had likely died in a North Korean prison camp after suffering torture there. His family was awarded damages of $330 million.[6][12] TheTimes of Israel reported that "North Korea is not expected to pay the damages, but lawyers will seek the confiscation of North Korean assets such as bank accounts and company shares."[4]
In May 2019, a North Korean cargo ship,Wise Honest, was judicially seized inIndonesia by the U.S. government for allegedly transporting and selling North Korean coal in breach ofinternational sanctions. U.S. federal judges ordered that the vessel be sold to compensate the family of Kim Dong-shik, and also the family ofOtto Warmbier, an American tourist who had died in 2017 shortly after being repatriated in acoma to the U.S. from North Korea, where he had spent more than a year in custody on a charge ofsubversion. In both cases, U.S. federal courts had found North Korea liable for the men's deaths.[13][14]