Reverend Phillip Jun Buck is a Korean-American Christian missionary for Assemblies of God Korean District and an advocate for human rights in North Korea.
[1] Buck began his mission work with Assemblies of God Korean District in January 1992 in Khabarovsk and Vladivostok, Russia, establishing churches in both cities.
[3] Raising money in the US, he established a network of shelters for North Korean refugees within China, compared by Time magazine to the US Underground Railroad.
[2][3] Columnists for The New York Times described the arrest as a sign of "a gradually hardening Chinese posture" toward the growing number of North Korean refugees.
[4] In 2007, Buck was awarded the Civil Courage Prize of the Train Foundation, which recognizes "steadfast resistance to evil at great personal risk — rather than military valor".