On Jan. 28, 2005, 20 Congressmen from the state of Illinois, including House speaker Dennis Hastert and House International Relations Committee chairman Henry Hyde, sent a letter to North Korea’s ambassador to the UN Pak Gil-yon, demanding to know the whereabouts of the Rev. Kim. Obama also signed the letter.

In the letter, the legislators said citizens from a Korean-American church in the Chicago area, where Kim’s wife lives, had raised this matter as an issue of grave concern. "The successful resolution of this case is of critical importance to us, both because of the constituent interests involved as well as because it is a case involving the most fundamental of human rights,” they wrote.

"We will NOT support the removal of your government from the State Department list of state sponsors of terrorism until such time, among other reasons, as a full accounting is provided to the Kim family regarding the fate of the Rev. Kim Dong-Shik following his abduction into North Korea five years ago."

In the letter, they likened the pastor in his dedication to helping defectors escape the North to Harriet Tubman, who helped African-American slaves escape the antebellum South, and Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved Hungarian Jews from the Nazis.

The letter was sent after the Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors' Office discovered that Korea-Chinese people were involved in Kim’s kidnapping in December 2004. North Korean defectors who had been secret agents overseas testified that Kim died in 2001.

Obama appears to have changed his position since. Meanwhile, the presidential hopeful has repeatedly said he wants to meet with leaders of hostile nations, including North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, if he is elected.

(englishnews@chosun.com )