In the News

Media

Support for Christopher Ahn and Adrian Hong, plus their South Korean colleagues, has been widespread across media outlets that span the political divides.

US Judge Forced to Allow Extradition of Ex-Marine to Spain Fears He’ll be Killed. NY Post. By Mark Moore
A California federal judge appealed this week for a higher court to overturn her order allowing the extradition of a former US Marine to Spain, citing fears he will be abducted and murdered by North Korea for taking part in a raid on Pyongyang’s Madrid embassy three years ago.

Otto Warmbier’s Mom Pleads with Judge to Stop Biden WH extradition: ‘North Korea Will Kill Chris.’ Fox News. By Eric Shawn
A Los Angeles federal courtroom was riveted Tuesday as Cindy Warmbier, mother of Otto Warmbier, gave a heartfelt plea of support to protect the life of a former U.S. Marine who was arrested for being an activist against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s regime.

This Former Marine Is Facing Jail Time For A Fake Kidnapping Gone Wrong In A North Korean Embassy Buzzfeed News. By Bradley Hope
Christopher Ahn believed he could soothe the fears of defectors fleeing the horrors of the Kim regime. He found himself in the crosshairs of international law enforcement.

This ex-Marine tried to help North Korean diplomats defect. Now he faces decades in prison. Washington Post. By Max Boot and  Sue Mi Terry 
“This is my ankle bracelet covered with SpongeBob stickers,” Christopher Ahn says as he lifts his foot onto the table to show an electronic monitoring device placed on him by U.S. marshals. He is out on bail and cannot go more than 15 miles from home. He cannot leave his home at all between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. — but that’s an improvement over the previous year and a half, when he couldn’t leave home, period. “It’s so depressing,” he tells us at his lawyer’s office. “At least when I have a smiling SpongeBob waving at me it kind of lessens the situation.”

“A mysterious group called Free Joseon — or Free North Korea — has broken Pyongyang’s seven decades-long record of untouchability and trampled on its greatest taboo: The “Supreme Dignity” Kim Jong Un must never be desecrated.”

“North Korea is a state sponsor of terrorism that has shown few qualms about attempting extrajudicial killings of defectors and other “enemies of the state” even on foreign soil. Last month, when Spain’s high court, disclosed the names of the embassy suspects, it endangered the activists and their families.”

“For the U.S. to accept what is essentially a North Korean version of the events is to effectively defend the Kim regime. It sends the message to Pyongyang that its egregious crimes lie beyond the concern of the world’s presumptive champion of freedom and democracy.”

“The U.S. must not do Kim’s bidding. Our extradition treaty with Spain provides for a refusal to extradite if we regard the offense in question as political. The North Korean Embassy breach surely was that, and the U.S. should seek to protect the dissidents rather than hand them over to Spain.”

“Free Joseon is a textbook resistance movement”

“Fox News viewed one video from a security camera inside an embassy conference room that purportedly shows a North Korean diplomat meeting with “Free North Korea” members, and they are seen calmly talking and laughing.”

“We shouldn’t extradite these people to Spain,” says Gordon Chang, the noted Asian analyst…”The Spanish should never have asked for extradition in the first place, because these ‘crimes,’ quote un-quote, are actually political.

This group has been able to do some very important things that governments have not wanted to do and have not been able to do.”

“The “DOJ is executing warrants against U.S. nationals being targeted by North Korea, based on criminal complaints from the Kim regime.” It’s as unbelievable as it sounds.

“Suppressing dissidents who fight for the liberation of innocent North Koreans only sends the message to Pyongyang that its unsurpassed crimes against humanity lie beyond the concern of the United States.”

“While Ahn is being held in LA, Hong is reportedly in hiding from U.S. authorities and North Korean hit squads.”

“The developments mark a dramatic turn of fate for the revolutionary group, which sought to assist U.S. authorities by handing over computers and other items stolen from the North Korean embassy that it characterized as potentially having “enormous” intelligence value.”

“In a statement to The Washington Post, Hong’s lawyer, Lee Wolosky, said he was “dismayed that the U.S. Department of Justice has decided to execute warrants against U.S. persons that derive from criminal complaints filed by the North Korean regime.’
“The last US citizen who fell into the custody of the Kim regime returned home maimed from torture and did not survive,” he said, referring to Otto Warmbier, a U.S. college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 and died shortly after being flown back to the United States in a coma in 2017.”

“Adrian has always struck me as a young man seeking to make the kind of transformational changes that he witnessed as a youngster in a missionary home in Central America, but doing so in a secular context,” said a Christian activist and associate on condition of anonymity.

“There should have been several political discussions prior to the U.S. government’s acceptance of Spain’s request to arrest the men regarding this very political event,” said attorney Kim Sang-yun at Kobre & Kim, a former prosecutor at the Criminal Department at the U.S. Attorney Office.

Twitter Feed