Aijalon Gomes Doesn’t Sound Much Like a Defector After All
A Boston man detained in North Korea is a quiet, devout Christian so concerned about an American missionary held in Pyongyang that he was moved to tears at rallies protesting the communist regime, fellow activists said Wednesday.
North Korea announced Monday that Aijalon Mahli Gomes, 30, would stand trial after entering the country illegally. The trial date was not mentioned in a brief report in state media.
It was not immediately clear why Gomes, who taught English in South Korea, went to the communist country. However, activists in Seoul said he was an acquaintance of Robert Park, a fellow Christian from Arizona who crossed into North Korea on Christmas in a bold bid to draw attention to the country’s human rights situation. [AP]
GI Korea has more here.
Original Post, 23 March 2010: Whatever his motives for crossing into North Korea, Aijalon Mahli Gomes certainly doesn’t fit the angry left personality profile the Donga Ilbo’s first quotation of him led me to believe — that is, the sort of American who’d want to join the North Korean army.
On the contrary, the information assembled by GI Korea’s readers and press reports suggests that he’s a nice, quiet, deeply religious, and somewhat awkward man. He may have belonged to some of the same religious groups as Robert Park. And like Park’s, his crossing is unlikely to have the intended effects, whatever those might be.
Gomes came to South Korea about two years ago to teach English. Fellow American Jered Lyons says he taught in the same town as Gomes from October 2008 to July of 2009. He describes Gomes as deeply religious.
“Aijalon was always, he was the type of guy that kind of wanted to share the Gospel, if you will, share his faith,” he said. “He would always invite me to church with him, and always wanted to have Bible studies and stuff like that. So, I think he had a deep passion for bringing people to Christianity.”
Lyons says Gomes did not always relate easily to other people. “Overall, he was a nice guy. He meant well. He was a little socially awkward. I mean, yeah, I would say he didn’t do groups well,” he said. [Voice of America, Kurt Achin]
A spokeswoman for the man’s family in Boston, Thaleia Schlesinger, said that Gomes had been teaching English in South Korea for about two years and that it was unclear why he would have gone to North Korea.
She said his family was going through a difficult time and is “praying for his speedy return home. [AP]
“Mr. Gomes was a quiet man and was very diligent in church activities,” said Kang Hyang-seon, a teacher who worked with him at Sinbong Elementary School in Pocheon, a town north of Seoul near the border with North Korea.
Mr. Gomes flew into South Korea in the spring of 2008 for a one-year teaching contract with Sinbong. South Korea draws thousands of native speakers every year from the United States, Canada and elsewhere to teach English at schools. His contract with Sinbong expired on March 31 last year and he did not renew it, the school said.
At Sinbong, he taught 20 hours a week helping third- to sixth-graders learn English.
Mr. Gomes told his colleagues that he wanted to move to a town closer to Seoul so it would be easier for him to attend a foreigners’ church in the industrial district of Guro . They remembered him talking about doing volunteer community work with other Christians.
“He was a polite man and was very nice toward children,” said Chung Pil-gyu, another Sinbong teacher. [N.Y. Times, Choe Sang-Hun]
“All the memories we have about Gomes, who is an African-American, are only good. Everyone here liked him,” school headmaster Cho Kyoo-Sig told AFP. “I remember him as a very mellow and calm person. He was very kind to everybody and all the children liked him so much.
Gomes left the school, saying he would find a better-paying job in Uijeongbu City next to Seoul. “If he wants to return to this school, he would always be welcome. It’s hard to find a native English teacher as good as Gomes,” Cho said.
A teacher said Gomes was a “deeply religious person.” “He acted like an evangelist. He took the trouble to commute to Seoul to participate in Wednesday prayer sessions at a foreigners’ church there,” she said. “He was also engaged in community service, working as a volunteer at a day care centre.” [AFP]
And lest we forget why people need to stop walking into North Korea:
North Korea has used detained American citizens as bargaining chips with the United States. The trial announcement comes as Washington has been putting pressure on Pyongyang to end its yearlong boycott of nuclear disarmament-for-aid talks. [Reuters, Jon Herskovitz]