LOS ANGELES -- An American missionary who strode illegally into North Korea on Christmas Day and was detained by the communist regime for 43 days was welcomed back to the United States Saturday evening in an emotional reunion with family members at Los Angeles International Airport.
Robert Park was greeted by his parents and brother in a private location at the airport after arriving on a commercial flight from Beijing. Earlier Saturday, the 28-year-old Korean-American from Tucson, Ariz., flew to the Chinese capital from Pyongyang.
The family stopped briefly for reporters as they left the airport in their car. A thin and pale Park said nothing and kept his eyes downcast while his brother, Paul Park, told reporters that he's in good condition.
"Hugging him, there didn't seem to be anything broken," he said.
Robert Park crossed the frozen Tumen River from China into North Korea on Dec. 25, carrying letters calling on leader Kim Jong Il to close the country's notoriously brutal prison camps and step down from power -- acts that could have risked execution in the hard-line communist country.
The family planned to feed Robert Park spaghetti for dinner -- his favorite meal growing up. Paul Park added that his brother seemed to be in good health, although he appeared to have lost a little weight.
The family didn't have time during their brief airport reunion to ask Robert Park whether he had been mistreated by North Korean officials, Paul Park said.
Park crossed the frozen Tumen River from China into North Korea carrying letters calling on leader Kim Jong Il to close the country's notoriously brutal prison camps and step down from power -- acts that could have risked execution in the hard-line communist country.
North Korea's government announced Friday it would release Park, with official media quoting him as saying he now believed "there's complete religious freedom for all people everywhere" in the North.
"I would not have committed such crime if I had known that the (North) respects the rights of all the people and guarantees their freedom and they enjoy a happy and stable life," the official Korean Central News Agency quoted Park as saying.
North Korea is regarded as having one of the world's worst human rights records, with some 154,000 political prisoners held in six camps across the country, according to the South Korean government.
The government severely restricts religious observance, only allowing worship -- primarily by foreigners -- at sanctioned churches. Defectors say underground worship and the distribution of Bibles can mean banishment to a labor camp or execution.
North Korea had previously disclosed nothing about Park during his 43 days in custody.
The report by KCNA, North Korea's governmental mouthpiece, quoted Park, of Tucson, Arizona, as saying he was ashamed of the "biased" view he once held of the communist nation. It said he changed his mind after his Bible was returned to him and he attended a service at Pongsu Church in Pyongyang.
Park did not respond to questions from reporters Saturday asking whether he had been speaking freely or under duress to KCNA.
He was to head to the United States later Saturday, U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson said. "We welcome North Korea's release of Robert Park," Stevenson said.
This was the second time in less than a year that an American has been held by North Korea, which doesn't have diplomatic ties with the U.S. Two journalists were released in August with former President Bill Clinton's help after they were arrested at the border and sentenced to prison.
Last month, North Korea notified the U.S. that it has yet another American in custody for allegedly entering the country illegally.
Friends and family were waiting anxiously for Park's return.
"We are just elated that he's been released safely," the Rev. Madison Shockley, a Park family pastor in Carlsbad, California, said by phone. "We cannot wait for him to land on American soil and to hear the truth of what he discovered there."
Shockley said Park's Korean-American parents were told of the release by the State Department on Friday and were very happy but almost in shock.
"The mother will only truly believe it when he is in her arms," Shockley said.
Messages left for Park's parents and brother were not immediately returned late Friday local time.
"We finally can relax," said the Rev. John Benson, a pastor in Tucson, Arizona, who ordained Park as a missionary. "We still had a little bit of reservation while he was still in North Korea. There was always a chance that they could change their mind."
Benson said he was skeptical of Park's statements Thursday, which he said sounded like "propaganda," and said Park may be able to speak freely once he's back in the U.S.
"It totally did not sound like Robert at all," Benson said.
Park's uncle in Los Angeles, Manchul Cho, said he was thrilled by the rapid developments after weeks of silence from Pyongyang.
"The progress has been so fast," Cho said. "North Korea never talked about him. It was total darkness."
