By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter

A Korean-American human rights activist crossed a river into North Korea from China on Christmas day, carrying a letter urging North Korean leader Kim Jong-il to stop human rights abuses in the communist regime, fellow activists said Saturday.

Robert Park, 28, crossed a poorly guarded stretch of the frozen Tumen River that separates the North from China around 5 a.m., shouting that he brought God's love, according to a member of the Seoul-based group Pax Koreana, which promotes human rights in North Korea.

Park carried a letter which calls for opening the border for food and medicines to be delivered to North Korean people suffering from food shortage and sicknesses, and releasing all political prisoners, the group said.

"I am an American citizen. I brought God's love. God loves you and God bless you,'' Park reportedly said in Korean as he crossed over Friday near the northeastern city of Hoeryong, according to the group.

Two other people watched Park cross and filmed it, it said. The group said it plans to release footage of the crossing.

No information has emerged about what happened to Park next. North Korea's state-run media was silent.

The U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing said they were aware of the incident but had no details.

"The U.S. government places the highest priority on the protection and welfare of American citizens," said State Department spokesman Andrew Laine.

The illegal entry could complicate Washington's efforts to coax North Korea back to negotiations aimed at its nuclear disarmament. Park's crossing also comes just months after the country freed two U.S. journalists, who were arrested along the Tumen and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor for trespassing and "hostile acts." They were released to former President Bill Clinton when he visited the isolated country in August. North Korea and the United States do not have diplomatic relations.

Pyongyang holds some 154,000 political prisoners in six large camps across the country, according to South Korean government estimates. The North has long been regarded as having one of the world's worst human rights records, but it denies the existence of prison camps.

North Korea's criminal code punishes illegal entry with up to three years in prison.

gallantjung@koreatimes.co.kr