North Korea says it has decided to free a detained American
missionary who crossed its border to raise human rights
issues.
Robert Park slipped across the frozen Tumen River into North
Korea from China on Christmas Day carrying letters calling on
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il to shut the country's camps
for political prisoners and step down from power.
The North's official Korean Central News Agency reported that
the North "decided to leniently forgive and release him,
taking his admission and sincere repentance of his wrong
doings into consideration."
