NK defector Shin Dong-hyuk says father a 'hostage' of regime

/ Yonhap

By Lee Ji-hye

Shin Dong-hyuk, a prominent North Korean defector, said this week that he believes his father is being held hostage by the Kim Jong-un regime.

Shin, a high-profile human rights activist, said he saw his father in a propaganda video released by Pyongyang. The video reportedly smears Shin, portraying him as a criminal who spreads fabrications about the regime.

The video reportedly shows Shin’s father urging Shin to "come to your senses and return” to the North.

Shin has become a vocal activist against the regime after fleeing the North’s reportedly brutal political prison system, an experience detailed in the Blaine Harden-penned biography "Escape from Camp 14."

"I don't know if I should be happy or sad to see that my father is alive," wrote Shin on his Facebook page. "No matter what the dictator does to my father, they cannot cover my eyes, nor shut my mouth."

"I love him so much, and I feel terribly sorry for him," he added.

In a recent column for CNN, Shin blasted the regime for the smear campaign.

"My only 'sin' against the North Korean dictator is that I told the entire world about the suffering of the political prison inmates in the political prison camps," he wrote. "My only 'crime' against the dictator is that I escaped from the political prison camp."