{"id":60617,"date":"2026-09-15T09:37:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/?p=60617"},"modified":"2026-09-15T09:38:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T00:38:24","slug":"vomk-report-416","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/2026\/09\/15\/vomk-report-416\/","title":{"rendered":"RUSSIA: KOREAN MISSIONARY TRIAL RESUMES THIS WEEK AFTER DELAYS"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60620″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”The trial of a Korean missionary facing 17 years in prison on immigration-related charges is set to resume this week in Khabarovsk, Russia, after the court-appointed interpreter failed to appear at a hearing on September 1. According to persecution watchdog Voice of the Martyrs Korea, two hearings are scheduled this week and two next week in the case of Park Tae Yeon, with a verdict expected September 24. ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:1.2em|text_align:left|color:%23111111″ google_fonts=”font_family:Noto%20Sans%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700%2C700italic|font_style:700%20bold%20regular%3A700%3Anormal” css=”” el_class=”headline”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\u201c<\/span><\/span>Missionary Park is<\/span>\u00a0doing well<\/span><\/span>,<\/span><\/span>\u00a0considering that she has been in detention since January and her trial was originally supposed to start in April<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>got delayed until August,<\/span>\u00a0and has faced several other recent delays,<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0says\u00a0<\/span>Voice of the Martyrs Korea Representative Dr<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Hyun Sook Foley<\/span><\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>\u201c<\/span><\/span>As\u00a0<\/span>you can imagine<\/span>, s<\/span>he is tired of staying in one place, but\u00a0<\/span>she looks good and tells visitors that<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>she feels well too.<\/span><\/span>\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Voice of\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>Martyrs Korea\u00a0<\/span>has been advocating for\u00a0<\/span>M<\/span>issionary Park since her\u00a0<\/span>arrest<\/span>\u00a0in\u00a0<\/span>Khabarovsk,\u00a0<\/span>Russia\u00a0<\/span>o<\/span>n January<\/span>\u00a015,\u00a0<\/span>one week before she was scheduled to return home to Korea to retire at age 70.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]Representative<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Foley says that the three charges against Missionary Park are all immigration-related and deal with\u00a0<\/span>assistance<\/span>\u00a0Missionary Park allegedly provided to Koreans to enter Russia. Two of the charges carry\u00a0<\/span>maximum<\/span>\u00a05-year sentences, and the third carries a\u00a0<\/span>maximum<\/span>\u00a07-year\u00a0<\/span>sentence<\/span>, leading to a possible\u00a0<\/span>maximum<\/span>\u00a017-year sentence between the three charges.\u00a0<\/span>Representative<\/span>\u00a0Foley\u00a0<\/span>says although the charges are explicitly immigration-related,\u00a0<\/span>Voice of the\u00a0<\/span>Martyrs<\/span>\u00a0Korea\u00a0<\/span>remains<\/span>\u00a0concerned that the motivation for the charges is religious.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60618″ img_size=”600*800″ alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”Ms. Park Tae Yeon has been living with a sincere love for the country of Russia and its people since she arrived there in 1993.” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:13px|text_align:center|color:%230a0101|line_height:1.45em” css=””][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]\u201cVoice of the\u00a0<\/span>Martyrs<\/span>\u00a0Korea obtained copies of a notification sent out in January by the Khabarovsk Department of Education to educational and other\u00a0<\/span>childcare<\/span>\u00a0institutions in the area. The notification says in part, \u2018In the capital of the region, a citizen of South Korea, an agent of an American organization\u00a0<\/span>Park Tae Yeon<\/span>\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>Child Evangelism Fellowship set up a brainwashing machine for children, instilling values alien to our society and drawing them into the practice of the\u00a0<\/span>Korean American<\/span>\u00a0form of Protestantism.\u2019 The statement continues: \u2018Russian children were set against the family and the state, and\u00a0<\/span>Park Tae Yeon<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>herself was presented to them as the main life guide. The camp was carefully conspiratorial.\u2019 The notification concludes: \u2018<\/span>Park Tae Yeon<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>intended to take Russian children to South Korea for final\u00a0<\/span>zombification, but<\/span>\u00a0did not have time. Now\u00a0<\/span>Park Tae Yeon<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>has been detained,\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>a criminal case has been opened for organizing illegal migration.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Representative<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Foley says that similar reports appeared in state-affiliated Russian media in late January.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u201cThe criminal charges and media campaign against Missionary Park reflect the continued decline in religious freedom across the Russian Federation, particularly as it relates to Protestant Evangelicals,\u201d says\u00a0<\/span>Representative\u00a0<\/span>Foley.\u00a0<\/span>She\u00a0<\/span>notes the designation this year by Russia of Child Evangelism Fellowship and fellow mission agency, Mission Eurasia, as \u201cundesirable organizations<\/span>\u201d,<\/span>\u00a0effectively criminalizing any association of Russian citizens with these groups.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]\u201cThe 2025 US Commission on International Religious Freedom report on Russia says, \u2018Russia criminalizes the activities of several peaceful religious groups by designating them as \u201cterrorist,\u201d \u201cextremist,\u201d or \u201cundesirable,\u201d despite no evidence of their promotion of or participation in violence.\u2019\u00a0<\/span>That\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0exactly what we see in the case of Missionary Park. Her activity\u00a0<\/span>hasn\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0changed for more than 30 years, The only thing that has changed is that now Russian authorities calls people like her \u2018extremists\u2019, \u2018brainwashers\u2019, and \u2018conspirators against Russia\u2019, despite all common-sense evidence to the contrary.\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]Since 2021, the United States has\u00a0<\/span>designated<\/span>\u00a0Russia as one of 12 \u2018Countries of Particular Concern\u2019 for religious freedom violations, along with countries including China, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, and Cuba.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][\/vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=””]An online petition posted by Voice of the Martyrs Korea from February to April garnered more than 4,000 signatures from Korea, along with more than 1,000 signatures from Russia, Ukraine, the United States, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil, Africa, Finland, Zimbabwe, Poland, Hungary, Indonesia, Romania, Nigeria, Scotland, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css=””]In April,\u00a0<\/span>Voice of the Martyrs Korea\u00a0<\/span>Representative<\/span>s<\/span>\u00a0Dr<\/span><\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0Hyun Sook Foley\u00a0<\/span>and CEO Pastor Eric Foley<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>deliver<\/span>ed<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>the<\/span>\u00a0petition to the Russian Embassy in Seoul<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0<\/span><\/span>calling for the\u00a0<\/span>missionary\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>immediate release.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>Copies of the petition were also sent to the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_column][\/vc_column]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[vc_section][vc_row][vc_column][vc_single_image image=”60620″ img_size=”large” alignment=”center” css=””][vc_custom_heading text=”The trial of a Korean missionary facing 17 years in prison on immigration-related charges is set to resume this week in Khabarovsk, Russia, after the …","protected":false},"author":1959,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[857,235,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60617","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-russian-special","category-special-column","category-vomk-report"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.5","language":"en","enabled_languages":["ko","en","zh","ru"],"languages":{"ko":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"zh":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"ru":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60617","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1959"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60617"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60617\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60625,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60617\/revisions\/60625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60617"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60617"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vomkorea.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60617"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}