Seok Jae-Hyun Will Be Freed

The charge the Chinese prosecutors used neatly encapsulates their cynical contempt for freedom. They called him a “human trafficker” for trying to help North Korean refugees escape from China–where life cowers under the daily threat of deportation back to the death camps in North Korea–to haven in South Korea. The brilliant Claudia Rosett told the story best here, in the Wall Street Journal, where she writes a bi-weekly column.

Seok is also a professional photographer and stringer for the New York Times, but even the entreaties of James Brooke (not to mention the tears of his wife) were not enough to save him from two years in prison. Reporters Sans Frontiers circulated a petition for his release, to no avail. Grumbling from the State Department about human rights may have finally done the trick. American threats to get serious about human rights (all of them empty so far) often lead to the release of a series of dissidents. This is China’s typical tactic for mollifying world opinion to that it will be left alone to oppress the other billion people it rules.

Now, Norbert Vollertsen writes me to say that Mr. Seok will be released, and the BBC is also reporting it. Please let it be so. He has much to tell us, if we are ready to listen. Welcome home, Seok Jae-Hyun. We never forgot you.