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A missionary who was imprisoned for 15 months after trying to aid North Korean refugees in China has returned home to a greeting of balloons and flowers from delighted relatives and friends.

Wearing a baseball hat and dark sunglasses Monday night on his arrival at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the Rev. Phillip Jun Buck, 68, said returning home was like being in a “dream state.”

A son, Jamin Yoon, 35, holding flowers as his father was swarmed by reporters, said his father’s attire was chosen to shield his appearance in case the longtime evangelist decided to try to go back to China for more missionary work.

I had heard that he would be freed, decided not to write anything until I heard something more definite. Grant Montgomery has the story.

Update: Pastor Buck describes his captivity:

He was deprived of sleep and interrogated while exhausted, and ate a very limited diet for 15 months and still the Rev. Philip Jun Buck said after being released by Chinese authorities that his experience was nothing compared with what happens to many North Korean refugees.

“It’s very important for us to help North Korean refugees, to save them,” Buck said at a news conference in Korean, which was translated by his daughter, Grace Yoon of Lynnwood. Buck, 68, who preaches at Bethany Church in Edmonds, spoke Sunday about his experience in China.

[….]

Buck said North Koreans caught in China have a much different story to tell. Most are tortured and many are executed when they are returned to North Korea.

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