English
To whom it may concern,
I approach you with the important request to help us out on the matter of establishing contact to our colleague Park Ki-Pyong, or to name someone who might share information about his whereabouts and his fate with us.
As you might already know, Park Ki-Pyong is a famous poet from South-Korea whom we, the P.E.N Center Germany, made our honorary member in November 1991.
We are trying to help him out as part of our work for ‘writers in prison’.
He and his wife Kim Chin-Ju were arrested in the beginning of the year 91 after living underground since receiving an arrest warrant in 1988.
In September 1991 he was sentenced to life in prison, Mrs. Kim received a sentence of 6 ½ years.
These sentences are anomalously severe.
We tried to establish contact to Park Ki-Pyong via his publisher, Bulbik, Seoul, as well as via the director of the Human Rights Committee, the Korean National Council of Churches and the Minkahyop (Society of Families of political Prisoners) Seoul.
All of it was in vain, there seems to be no trace of him.
At first, the Korean P.E.N assured the international P.E.N their support in this cause, but we came to the realization that we will not receive any help on their end.
So now we are turning towards Koreans living in Germany in hopes to receive information about Park Ki-Pyong or other methods how we could receive information about him.
We are also requesting for your support this endeavor.
I have decided to cover this endeavor in the name of P.E.N, and you can find my address in the letterhead where you may send your reply to.
I hope this request will not be in vain.
Best regards and deepest thanks,
Ingrid Bacher