The following is my journal entries during my trips to the Peoples Republic of China near the North Korean border 2002-2007.
2002 -- Northern China, south of Shenyang. I taught English at a elementary and middle school for a University. During my residence there I met many people from various occupations there. These are some of the conversations I had with them concerning life in China as well as their knowledge of North Korea.
Source #1 -- I met several people that worked for the government. This source was a supervisor for a University. On several dinner meetings our conversation drifted to Americans still living inside North Korea. This person informed me of people who travelled there on business sometimes. They met and also seen Americans (English speaking caucasian men) teaching English and American culture to North Korean people. I asked if these friends had seen any caucasian men working in fields or labor camps there. The answere was NO!
Source #2 -- During a teacher's day outing in a nearby park (hike and picnic), a South Korean teacher couple I met, told me some of their friends and family go to North Korea sometimes to bring food and clothing to their relatives who live there. On several occasions they have told them that their travels from Sinuju, North Korea to south of Kanggye they have seen caucasian men 50-70 years of age working in the fields of a labor camp and were being guarded by armed North Korean soldiers. There were may Korean people also working in the fields there. On one observation some of these caucasian men were seen conversing with several North Korean soldiers. I asked them where exactly was the labor camp. They told me there is a highway that goes to Kanggye from the main road between Sinuju and Pyongyang. About two thirds of the way to Kanggye there is a secondary road that turns south and the labor camp is down that road and is located near the town of Yodok.
Source #3 -- I met a police officer who discovered I was an American police officer and we became friends. After about 2-3 weeks I learned he grew up in a village near the North Korean border (Yalu river). He told me of North Korean refugees coming to his village. During their stay there they told him many of their friends and some of their relatives had been placed in labor or "re-education" camps to work off their offenses. While there they observed caucasian men working their and conversed with some of them who spoke fluent Korean. Several of the men taught them English and told them they were American prisoners from the Vietnam war. They had been moved there years ago after the Vietnam war ended. They also observed old men who were not in very good physical condition and only spoke to them briefly. They appeared to be very depressed. I asked this police officer if he knew where this labor camp was and he told me one of his family told him it was off of the main road that goes from Sinuju to Pyongyang and closer to Pyongyang than Sinuju which would place it beween the main road and the port of Nampo (east of Nampo). I taught this police officer English so he could acquire a position to be assigned to the 2008 Olympics which would give him an automatic promotion. He invited me to his village but I never went as I felt is was too close to the North Korean border for me. During my stay in this city I was followed one day by Chinese State Security Bureau agents and later by a North Korean agent. My police officer friend said the Chinese agents questioned him about me and he told them I was just a teacher. They told him a long time ago I worked for a US intelligence agency and to report back to them if I asked questions concerning the military or government.
2006 - Yanji, China
Source #4 -- During my teaching assignment in Yanji (near where the two female journalists were taken recently), I worked at two schools there and lived in an apartment near the PLA (Chinese Peoples Liberation Army) training base and across from the Yanji Christian church. Several teachers I worked with at the school were Korean and had family that visited friends and relatives inside North Korean, bringing them food and clothing. They also told me of witnessing caucasian men believed to be Americans working in the fields of labor camps south of Kannggye. That is the only location they witnessed the caucasian me at. A young Chinese teacher told me of similar stories during one conversation then started telling me about nuclear weapons hidden in North Korea, however I stopped him and told him I did not wish to know about that. I was only interested of captive Americans inside North Korea. I was suspicious that this was a "ploy" to have me ask about military or government information which I could be prosecuted for. Right after my arrival in Yanji I was told that North Korean and Chinese agents raided the church near my apartment there and took North Korean Refugees back to North Korea via the nearby Tumen bridge to the town (Namyang) on the North Korean side Hoeryong detention center. Another source at this school showed me several places where former North Korean government officials were allowed to open and operate businesses in Yanji. This person also invited me to go to Pyongyang, North Korea with him to speak to government officials there to open an English school there. I was old the North Korean government knew I was in Yanji and wished to speak to me about teaching for a period of time in Pyongyang. I stalled until I left.
Source #5 -- One of my students was from South Korea and had family that presently resided inside North Korea. She also knew a young North Korean woman who had escaped from North Korea and worked at a nearby Tea house. One afternoon I went with her to meet this woman. Upon our arrival we were told that she had left a week ago. So we had Tea there. In our conversation that day I asked her about Americans inside North Korea. She was reluctant at first to discuss this with me but after awhile she told me of conversations she had with her friend. Her friend had told her one of her family members spent 3 years in a labor camp near Yoduk, North Korea which is located south of Kanggye. Her friend observed more than 15 American prisoners there and they looked to be 50 years of age. This was in 2005. They seemed to be treated a little better than the Korean people. Some of them worked in the fields and some taught English to soldiers assigned there. After this conversation we left the Tea house and I went with her to a bank where she located a person that sent a money order to her family in South Korea. She told me her mother there would then cash the money order and give cash to another family member who makes frequent trips to North Korea then her mother's family would be given most of the money as a small portion would go to the person that takes the money there. I asked her to tell her mother to see if she could find out more about American prisoners in North Korea.
Source #6 -- As I was leaving Yanji I met a aid worker who had lived in North Korea for a period of 4 years in a small farming village. He told me of two places where dead American and South Korean soldiers are buried (Pujou and Changjin counties, South Hamgyong province). He also told me of rumors of "live" American prisoners being held south of Kanggye in a labor camp. However this camp is not one of the worst.
Fall 2007 -- I sent the above information to Governor Bill Richardson before his trip to North Korea with Dan Baughman of DPMO. They both travelled to Pyongyang and confronted the North Korean government officials with some of this information.
I returned to a village North of Shenyang where I helped a new English school there get started. This was in late 2006 after Yanji the same year. I returned again in 2007 and only had acknowlegements by some of the people I met of Americans being held inside North Korea. I was told not to travel to Tumen as the North Koreans know every time I arrive in China and have me followed. Several of my friends there were worried I may find myself in North Korea. The school had another teacher obtain a Chinese cell phone for me and to call him if I suspected that I was being followed. He knew police there and they would respond immediately. He also told me if I was kidnapped by the North Koreans his school would be held accountable and it would be an embarassement for the Chinese government. He also told me his government and the North Korean government knew of my previous work for the US military and my work with US intelligence.