26 Facts About Park Sang-hak

Park Sang-hak is a North Korean democracy activist and is the chairman of Fighters for a Free North Korea.

Park Sang-hak is a hard-line anti-communist and supporter of the conservative movement in South Korea.

Park Sang-hak met with other members of the community every Monday for political classes and Saturday self-criticism sessions.

Park Sang-hak's grandmother, returning from a rare visit to Japan, told of how much happier people were in other countries.

Park Sang-hak began to hear from fellow students, who had been chosen to study in other communist countries, share stories of the outside world.

Park Sang-hak discovered people in Europe did not have to do self-criticisms each week, which had been a great source of stress.

Park Sang-hak continued to work in Kim Il Sung Youth Alliance, got a girlfriend, and got engaged.

Park Sang-hak had come on behalf of Park's father, who was in Japan working for the government.

Park Sang-hak's father realized the family was in danger, and he wanted them to leave.

Park Sang-hak's father discovered the scale of the famine in North Korea.

Once they had proof, Park Sang-hak took his mother, brother, and sister and headed for China.

Park Sang-hak was able to compare the North Korean system to the democratic system of the South.

Park Sang-hak restudied Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il and studied South Korean presidents Syngman Rhee and Park Chung-hee.

Park Sang-hak could have lived comfortably as a researcher at the Mobile Institute, but he felt some responsibility.

Park Sang-hak felt as an intellectual he had responsibility to be a part of this movement.

In 2006, Park Sang-hak became the chairman of the Democracy Network against North Korea Gulag.

In July 2020, Park Sang-hak authored an op-ed in The Washington Post, alleging harassment by the Moon Jae-in administration.

Park Sang-hak wrote that his home address had been leaked, his bank accounts investigated, and that he had been banned from international travel by the South Korean government in response to his human rights advocacy.

Park Sang-hak's supporters noted that the Moon administration's actions appeared to conflict with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which South Korea is signatory.

In September 2011, a North Korean defector called Ahn was arrested in Seoul by members of the National Intelligence Service on his way to meet with Park Sang-hak, referred to as "Enemy Zero" by the Pyongyang regime.

Park Sang-hak said that the assassin, Ahn, had phoned him earlier and asked to meet him.

Park Sang-hak was ordered to pay 11.75 million Won in fines, which was the same amount he had been promised for assassinating Park.

Park Sang-hak appeared at far-right internet forum Ilbe Storehouse and he declared himself to be an Ilbe member in 2013.

Park Sang-hak supported far-right pastor Jeon Kwang-hoon and attended Jeon's National Revolutionary Party inauguration ceremony.

Park Sang-hak was charged on November 25,2020, with beating and throwing bricks at producers and crew from the Seoul Broadcasting System on June 23.

In May 2013, Park Sang-hak was presented with the Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent by the Human Rights Foundation.