Special Meeting with Father in Agony over Losing Son
“I would never forgive the ones who took away my son, Jong Chul’s life, and I am not even thinking about that.”
A period of twenty years can heal some pains in a heart and being eighty years old might give a heart to understand and forgive everything. However, Park Jeong Ki, father of deceased Park Jong Chul who was tortured to death by the dictatorship in January 1987, still continues his life on behalf of his son. He has been holding anger and sorrow in his heart for twenty years.
Father Park met newspaper journalists at Sariam where son Park’s mother and sister struck a bell of tears in February 13, 1987 and recollected some memories of twenty years ago. He said, “The appearance in the picture of striking bells still remains in people’s memory as a symbol of the citizens who were hurt by the dictatorship after the June demonstration.”
Park believed that his youngest son’s death would make his life simple, but everything changed all of a sudden. Referring to the matter, he says, “A lifetime officeholder became an antigovernment figure because of my son, who was killed by the government.” Park worked as a public servant for 32 years and retired due to the age limit in June 1987.
As progress of his son's death was revealed, he felt responsible to contribute his life to democratization, having a lot of pressure on his shoulders. He stated, “The party concerned did not receive any punishment for doing such a dreadful thing to my son and no one actually asked for forgiveness. So my anger gets bigger and bigger.”
The father founded the National Human Rights Association after establishing a survivors’ council with families who lost family members for the simple reason that they went against dictatorship. Also, he personally participated in social campaigns asking for abolition of the National Security Law. From 1998 to 1999, Park spent 422 days holding a demonstration at Yeo-eui-do crying out loud for getting to the bottom of the mysterious death and revising the law for regaining a soiled reputation. For his actions, he was acknowledged as the Person For Democratization in 2002.
However, he misses his ordinary life as being the father of a patriot.
“If my son were alive, he would be in his forties living as a father of family...” Park was moved to tears. “I have been thinking about my son all the time for the past twenty years,” said Park, who still cannot let his son go.
Park said, “There is no apology from the party concerned so that means my son’s death is not over. Seeing the existence of the National Security Law, democratization is still not completed in this country.”
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 / 입력시간: 2007. 01.13. 09:36
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