With Deepest Regret . . .

UPDATE: I’m getting some unverified information (but from a good source, and shared with some fairly important people) that the Yonhap report may not be true, Chun Ki-Won’s confirmation notwithstanding. This has to be absolute hell for Rev. Park’s family. Obviously, I want to give readers the most accurate and up-to-date information I can, so keep checking back. You will know when I know. This is one time when I pray that I was wrong.

I must report today that the Reverend Jeffrey Park is presumed drowned in the headwaters of the Mekong River. May G-d comfort his family.

SEOUL, March 3 (Yonhap) — A Korean-American pastor who went missing earlier this year in Myanmar was presumed dead, a South Korean civic activist claimed Thursday. The pastor, identified as Park Joon-jae but also known as Jeffrey Bahk, was swept away by strong currents trying to swim across the Mekong River on Jan. 2, said Chun Ki-won, director of Seoul-based Durihana Missionary Foundation.

Bahk, 63, drowned trying to cross the river from Myanmar to Laos along with six North Korean defectors he reportedly met in Jilin and Yanji, China, in November. The former businessman from Atlanta planned to take them to Thailand to petition the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees to help them defect to South Korea, said Chun. “I saw him enter the river but that was the last I ever saw of him,” a North Korean defector said in a hand-written statement, a copy of which was obtained by Yonhap News Agency.

I first heard the rumors a week ago, but got the confirmation today. Link when I have it. I have no words for my contempt for South Korea, which bears partial responsibility for his loss. Our thoughts and prayers go to this brave man’s family. We must never forget him.

The refugees all arrived safely in South Korea.