Prisoners of Conscience


Kim Song-man & Group 202


When I sent my first letter to Kim Song-man, I thought I was simply writing a cheerful note to an obscure ,lonely person who might get some comfort from my letters. What happened was quite the opposite. I found him to be an extraordinary person who was resolute in his determination to find meaning and even joy in his circumstances.
Susan Clary
Local Group 202
Normal, Illinois
Kim Song-man
Amnesty International Local Group 202 of Normal, Illinois, took up the case of South Korean prisoner of conscience Kim Song-man in 1989. Kim had been arrested and jailed for his peaceful support of the reunification of North and South Korea. In jail, he was tortured and denied access to an attorney. Upon his conviction, Kim was given the death penalty. Later his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.


The members of Local Group 202:

Drake Zimmerman

Susan Clary

Patricia Madden

Jerry Stone

Robert A. Connelly

N. Grier Hills





For more than a decade, the members of Group 202 wrote letters to Kim and government officials in South Korea and around the world. His case was the subject of Amnesty International postcard campaigns, petition drives, and holiday card campaigns. Group 202 also sent Kim hundreds of care packages over the years. Kim was shifted from prison to prison for more than 13 years until he was freed in 1998.

"Quantity is quality," says case coordinator Drake Zimmerman about all the letters and care packages Group 202 sent to Kim. In fact, the abundance of mail led one prison warden to allow Kim to write letters to foreigners (a privilege normally denied to political prisoners). Kim wrote to Drake: "What moved him [the warden] to change his mind and grant me the permission [to write letters] was the quantity of parcels which have been sent me by you for about two years… They moved him."

At one point, Drake used his influence as president of his local Rotary Club on Kim's behalf. "I wrote a letter to a Rotary member in South Korea," Drake explains. "I asked him to look in on Kim at one of the prisons and to inquire after his well-being. This guy did and soon after I found out from Kim that the prison guards stopped beating him."

Last year, Group 202 published the letters they received from Kim Song-man. Their book, Enduring the Darkness: A Story of Conscience, Hope and Triumph, is also a chronicle of the group's work on the case and includes such items as the original case sheet on Kim Song-man, photos, illustrations, and messages from Amnesty's East Asian research team in London. The book shares the moving story of the years of effort, persistence, and work involved in helping to release a prisoner of conscience. Group 202 members included Susan Clary, Robert A. Connelly, N. Grier Hills, Patricia Madden, and Jerry H. Stone.

This past spring, some of the group members met Kim Song-man when he visited the United States to speak at Western Illinois University. "Kim is so clear and poised about who he is," says Drake. Undeterred by his prison experience, Kim now works for a non-governmental agency in South Korea seeking the unification of North and South Korea.