David Sneddon, missing since 2004 kidnapped by Kim Jong-un,Korea

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dotr

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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/w...nglish-12-years-byu-kim-jong-un-a7220951.html
David Sneddon: Student missing for 12 years was 'kidnapped to teach English to Kim Jong-un'
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The family of a college student who disappeared during a 2004 trip to China see new signs for hope after a Japanese news agency reported that he was kidnapped by the North Korean government.
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David Sneddon was presumed dead after he vanished in the Yunnan Province in western China when he was 24. A student at Brigham Young University, police said Mr Sneddon likely died while hiking in Tiger Leaping Gorge near the Jinsha River on 14 August 2004.

But they never recovered a body.
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http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11703024
attachment.php


His parents Roy and Kathleen Sneddon have long believed that he was kidnapped and have spent the past 12 years travelling to China and setting up social media campaigns to try and find their son.

"We just knew in our heart that he was alive, so we had to keep fighting," said Kathleen Sneddon.
Yunnan Province is used by those trying to escape North Korea as a route to the rest of Asia. The Sneddons believe that their son was targeted because he can speak fluent Korean, which was helpful when he was a Mormon missionary in South Korea prior to his kidnapping.
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'We initially thought that China had picked David up thinking he was involved in the underground railroad, because a former companion of his had been teaching a North Korean family in Beijing,' Roy Sneddon explained to Dailymail.com.

Roy and his sons began to visit Yunnan to put up posters and hand out flyers with David's photo, as a way to cajole the Chinese authorities into giving him back.
'We thought they might just say "We made a mistake" if we weren't too confrontational,' he explained.
But a few years on, they were contacted by a man with a very different idea.
​
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What a story! I hope he is alive and is not harmed by this info coming out now.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/0...04-forced-to-tutor-north-korean-dictator.html
Yahoo News Japan also reported that Sneddon became an English tutor to Kim Jong-un, the dictatorial leader of North Korea, and is now believed to have a wife and two children. The news outlet, which cited South Korea's Abductees' Family Union for the information, said Sneddon lives in Pyongyang, where he teaches English.
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The family set up a website: http://www.helpfinddavid.com/
 
Amazing. Almost beyond belief.
I hope this is not a wild goose chase for his poor family !
 
The idea that he is married, Roy Sneddon said, is something that came to their attention years ago by a Japanese woman who had been abducted by North Korea, as well as by people in Japan who had worked with abductees.

"It should be emphasized that that is part of the [North] Korean plan," Kathleen Sneddon said. "If [North Korea] captures you, [they]'re going to give you a wife; you have children, so you settle down and like it [there], and you enjoy it and give [them] your best."
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http://www.sltrib.com/home/4303918-155/utah-man-missing-since-2004-is
 
I hope he's still alive and, as nightmarish as it all sounds, is in fact true - and not something that the media has taken and ran with - for his family's sake. If it is all true, I hope he somehow makes it out of NK safely and soon. It's really hard to imagine a more stressful, horrifying, depressing position to be in than forced to teach Kim Jong-Un English for life, held captive and not knowing when your execution date is nigh, let alone having no contact with the outside world, especially family, knowing they probably think you're dead... Holy he11!


Sent via Tapatalk - Please excuse any mobile-induced typos. Thanks.
 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ped-Kim-Jong-lives-North-Korea-wife-kids.html

-David Sneddon disappeared in Yunnan, China, in 2004, aged 24
-Chinese police said he probably died hiking but his body was never found
-Now a South Korean organization says he was kidnapped by North Korea
-He was allegedly made to teach English to a young Kim Jong Un
-And now he lives with a wife and kids in the capital, Pyongyang, they said
-US Department of State has announced it will conduct a search for him
-And Marco Rubio has supported a Senate resolution to find the young man
-Mom Kathleen Sneddon said: 'We knew in our heart that he was alive'
 
Blondie in Spokane said:
Gosh - how could he ever escape back home to the US now that this has been publicized? Not a chance IMO.

ETA - or does he even want to escape now that his life has basically been determined for him? What an awful situation.
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IMO, if this is true his best course of action is to continue to pledge blind allegiance to North Korea and to say he is happy there. This news breaking would jeopardize any plans he might have made for escape in the near future. I just fear that NK will decide to "dispose" of him and his family to hide evidence they kidnapped him. Best case scenario could be that NK decides to try to use him as propaganda, forces him to say he went there voluntarily, is happy with a family, etc. Then at least he would be in the media and may have a chance at communication with his parents again (even if through a tv screen).
 
For those that don't believe he could be alive and not have left, we are talking about North Korea here. It is VERY possible to not be able to leave - especially if you are known by Kim and therefore known by all enforcers. I am praying for this young man from my homes state. Hopefully he is alive and this news doesn't jeopardize his life and the life of his family.

http://www.libertyinnorthkorea.org/learn-nk-challenges/

No Freedom of Movement
It is illegal for the North Korean people to leave their country without the regime’s permission, and the regime attempts to restrict the people’s movement even inside their own country.
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Thanks, dotr. I couldn't find one either, but I'm not that adept at searching on my phone. Thanks for starting it!
 
Wow. What a predicament. I hope some skilled negotiators are able to sort this out.
 
I have followed the case of Megumi Yokota over the years. She was a 13-year-old Japanese schoolgirl said to be kidnapped by North Korea in 1977. NK claims she committed suicide in 1994, but a DNA test done on the bones, sent to her parents in 2004, was not a positive match. I wish they could have gotten DNA from the now-grown granddaughter.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megumi_Yokota

Here's more on North Korea’s Abduction Project. Jenkins was an American who defected to NK in 1965 and married a Japanese woman (that had been kidnapped) in 1980.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/north-koreas-abduction-project

I asked Sergeant Jenkins what he considered the point of all the abductions. He answered by telling me about a visit that two North Korean cadres paid to his home in 1995. Such a visit was unusual, so he was nervous. The conversation turned to his daughters. “Thanks to the great benevolence of Kim Jong-il,” they said, the girls would be sent to the Pyongyang University of Foreign Studies. The college is one of the most prestigious in North Korea, but it also feeds into the country’s intelligence service. “That’s when I knew they were planning to turn Brinda and Mika into spies,” he recalled. “Think about it. They would be perfect raw material for North Korean spies, because they looked nothing like what someone would expect a North Korean spy to look like.” Mixed-race children are common in South Korea and Japan, but they are unheard of in the North. Jenkins believes the abduction project was a long-term breeding program. That could explain why most of the Japanese were abducted in pairs, usually a girlfriend and boyfriend out for a romantic evening, and why the North Koreans had no use for Jenkins’s wife’s mother.
 
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