Student Missing Since 2004 Was “Kidnapped By North Korea And Worked As Kim Jong Un’s Tutor”
David Sneddon went missing 12 years ago, in August 2004. He had been travelling through China, and his disappearance was quickly chalked up to a hiking accident. While authorities never recovered a body, he was presumed dead.
David’s parents - Roy and Kathleen - struggled to believe this version of events. Their son had been last seen in a popular, busy area, so they thought it unlikely that his body would remain undetected, and they held out hope that he was alive.
As it turns out, they might not have been hoping in vain. New evidence - uncovered by a Japanese news agency - has surfaced, suggesting that David might have been kidnapped, and trafficked to North Korea.
Daily MailInitially, David’s parents hadn’t even considered this as a possibility. While their son had gone missing in an area known to be connected to an underground railroad (used to transport North Korean escapees to South East Asia), and spoke fluent Korean - arguably making him a target - Roy and Kathleen thought he might have been taken by Chinese authorities, and barely gave a thought to the idea of him being trafficked. As they told The Daily Mail:
“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.”
In 2011, however, a man contacted Roy and Kathleen, offering up the theory that their son was alive in North Korea. While he didn’t have any concrete proof, he did invite David’s parents to Washington DC, where they were able to talk to a group of Japanese people who had previously been kidnapped and held captive in North Korea.
After meeting with these people, Kathleen and Roy decided to speak on an international radio channel, telling the story of their son’s disappearance and explaining that they thought him to still be alive, possibly in North Korea. Not long after, they got a call…
“I received a phone call from a US citizen near Seoul. He said, ‘My wife was a defector so I’m in touch with a community of people who left North Korea.
They tell me there is someone who matches the description of your son and he’s teaching English in Pyongyang.'”
Yahoo News Japan corroborated this story, reporting earlier in the week that David had been spotted in North Korea, and the head of the Abductees’ Family Union put out a statement saying that they had information he had been kidnapped by North Korean operatives, and forced to work as a tutor for the then-young Kim Jong Un.
Daily MailHe is reportedly currently living in Pyongyang with a wife and two children, working as an English teacher.
In light of this new information, the US Department of State have promised to conduct a search for David, and hopefully, they will able to bring him - along with any family he may have - home safe.
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H/T / Image Credits: Daily Mail