EVERETT, Wash. — 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.
Upon arriving at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, the Rev. Phillip Jun Buck, 68, said returning home was like being in a "dream state."
Buck, who lives in Everett and preaches at Bethany Church in Edmonds, said he was praying for North Korean inmates with whom he had been imprisoned since May 2005. "They know the old man has finally returned home," he said as his daughter, Grace Yoon, translated.
Buck, who provided shelter and work for North Koreans in northeastern China, was convicted last December of trying to sneak North Korean refugees through China into South Korea.
He could have faced up to 20 years in prison but was sentenced instead to deportation and was barred from re-entering China.
China considers the thousands of North Koreans who cross its borders to be economic refugees, said David Bachman, a professor at the Henry M. Jackson School of International Relations at the University of Washington.
Activists in the religious freedom movement lobbied for Buck's release, while his four adult children sought help from Congress and government agencies.
His case was raised at a congressional subcommittee hearing in April and featured at a Christian rock festival in Midland, Texas.