US man jailed in N. Korea phones home
BOSTON, Massachusetts, April 30, 2010 AFP - An American jailed in
North Korea was allowed Friday to call home for the first time since
being sentenced to eight years’ hard labor, as the United States urged
his release.Thaleia Schlesinger, a spokeswoman for Aijalon Mahli Gomes’
family in his hometown of Boston, told AFP that Gomes spoke with his
mother.“Yes, she did receive a phone call from her son in North Korea.
She was really quite surprised and relieved,” Schlesinger said.
“She is grateful to the government for allowing him to call. She has
no other comment but to say she was thankful to hear his voice.”
The 30-year-old from Boston was jailed by North Korea on April 6 and
fined 70 million won (equivalent to about 700,000 dollars at the
official exchange rate) for illegal border crossing.Gomes’ mother did no
reveal more about the conversation, Schlesinger said, “but she did say
she is praying for him and for his safe return.”Pyongyang said it had
allowed Gomes to make the call.
“US citizen Aijalon Mahli Gomes... asked for a phone contact with his
family for his health and other reasons,” the North’s official Korean
Central News Agency said.
“The relevant organ of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,
taking his request into consideration, permitted him to do so on
Friday.”The United States welcomed the “gesture” by North Korea to allow
Gomes to phone his family, but urged Pyongyang to free him from
jail.“It’s a gesture,” State Department spokesman Philip Crowley told
reporters. “But we want to see him released on humanitarian
grounds.”Gomes, a former English teacher in South Korea and reportedly a
devout Christian, was arrested in January the fourth US citizen in less
than a year to be detained for illegal entry.
KCNA said he had “admitted all the facts” at his trial.
The United States has requested an amnesty for him, working through
the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which represents US interests in the
country.
The hardline communist North pardoned and deported three previous
offenders. Analysts have said Gomes may also be freed after Pyongyang
uses him as a bargaining chip in its nuclear standoff with Washington.
The United States and other members of a six-nation nuclear disarmament
forum are pressing the North to return to talks which it quit a year
ago.Pyongyang wants Washington’s commitment to discuss a formal peace
treaty before it returns to the six-party talks.
It says it developed its nuclear arsenal in response to US threats
and needs a peace pact before it can consider giving up the weapons.The
United States says other matters should wait until after the North
rejoins the talks and shows it is serious about denuclearisation.Gomes
crossed the border from China on January 25, according to reports from
Pyongyang.
A Seoul activist, Jo Sung-Rae, said in March that the American had
taken part in anti-Pyongyang rallies in South Korea and was moved to
tears by accounts of rights abuses in the North.Gomes crossed one month
after US missionary Robert Park walked into the country across a frozen
border river from China on Christmas Day, calling on leader Kim Jong-Il
to quit because of rights abuses. |