Jimmy Carter To Return From North Korea With Aijalon Gomes
August 27th, 2010 by Noah
BOSTON — An American who was imprisoned in North Korea for illegally crossing the border has a gentle spirit but is also a person of conviction willing to be bold about what he believes, friends and acquaintances said.
Aijalon Gomes had been teaching English in South Korea when he was imprisoned in January for entering North Korea from China, U.S. officials said. This week, former president Jimmy Carter traveled to the isolated nation to try to win Gomes' release, and end the Boston's man harrowing and unlikely trip from the inner city to a North Korean jail.
"'He ran deep,' I think, would be the phrase that other people might use," said Erik Woodbury, who attended college with Gomes. "I was surprised that he ended up in North Korea, but I wasn't surprised that there was something he was passionate about."
It's unclear what prompted Gomes to enter the repressive nation. He may have been emulating fellow Christian Robert Park, who was detained after he crossed into North Korea a month earlier to highlight its human rights record, said Jo Sung-rae, a South Korean human rights advocate who met with Gomes. Park was expelled a few weeks later.
Shortly before he left for North Korea, Gomes was photographed in Seoul, South Korea, protesting Park's plight.
Gomes was sentenced in April to eight years of hard labor and fined $700,000 for illegally entering the country. Gomes' relatives have declined to say much about him or his situation, though they pleaded for his release on humanitarian grounds after North Korea's state-run media reported last month that he'd attempted suicide.
The family stayed quiet when asked for personal reflections about Gomes this week.
"They would prefer not to comment," said family spokeswoman Thaleia Schlesinger.
Gomes grew up in an apartment in Boston's Mattapan neighborhood, long a haven for immigrants and now heavily populated by African-Americans and people from Caribbean nations. In high school, he worked after school at Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. as part of a jobs programs that aimed to steer students toward college.
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