#Translation Park Jung-geun's letter from the jail

Park Jung-geun, who was jailed and indicted for retweeting North Korean posts, has sent a letter to his Socialist Party.
Amnesty International and Freedom House called for his immediate relase.
This is my English translation of his letter.

I am Jung-geun Park.

I am quite okay, just killing time well.
Didn't get solitary confinement; I am in a shared cell.
One of the cellmates is of my age, and others are old enough to be my father. I have few major problems, other than some patronizing like "Give up activism and become Christian" - with which I am not happy, but I couldn't help it.
I wish I could get a solitary cell; I'd requested a few times, but they rejected.
I have no trouble with the food - feeling okay with the regular meals and occasionally buying snacks. They are not great, nor horrible; please don't bother to pay for special meals for me.
Yesterday, a fellow Socialist Party member Ms. Kwon Soo-jung visited me.
She came very early in the morning, and talked to me for 12 minutes - a bit longer than the 10-minute rule of the jail.
It's been 3 days passed since she got her job back*, so I was relieved by her happier face than when I met her at the protest site.
  Thanks to Defense Attorney Minseok Lee who always brings copies of printed news articles and Twitter messages, I've enjoyed reading them and got encouraged.
I've read international news reports covering my case including AP, NYT, etc., and I think I am luckier than other political prisoners and victims of the National Security Law. I feel sorry about them and really wish they got more attention.
When I feel depressed, I read the copy of Twitter messages that my friends sent to me when I was detained in South Suwon Police Cell.
The Suwon Detention Center I've recently moved to is like a big old apartment building; little sunlight gets in, I could hardly see outside, even exercise time is allowed only inside, and I'd feel more confined.
This is not good for mental health of detainees waiting for their trials.
Now I really feel Korean detention system must get better, once I got in and experienced it...

I miss my friends badly.
There are so many things I need to do when I get bailed.
I need to smoke - I heard some prisoners blackmarket 8 packs of cigarettes at 1 million won(USD $1,000), but I wouldn't join such stuff.
My lawyer Mr. Lee says he's going to apply for my bail to the court next week; I think it will've been filed already when this letter arrives. I need to take care of my photo studio, and visit my psychiatraist for counseling. I really really hope the court lets me bailed this time.

I heard the trial was scheduled on March 9th; I am trying not to panic, but it is not easy.
But I am fine; it's getting easier to endure, as I am getting more used to this way of my life every day; oh no, I know I should not get used to this way of life...

I tried to contemplate over and over again; I really tried to think in the law enforcement guys' shoe; but I just can't understand why I need to be detained for a month; not to mention why I need to be indicted.

First, the law says they can detain a suspect when he/she could run away or eliminate the evidence - bullshit.
They've got all the evidence - copied Twitter messages; and if I'd been willing to run away, I would've done months ago when the police summoned me.
Their paranoia that I could write another pro-North-Korean tweet is NOT a legal reason to detain me months before the trial.
Second, you know the very unfair and absurd confiscation of my stuff when the police raided my photo studio months ago - I mean, they took my personal photos with friends, some best-selling books I'd just bought from a downtown bookstore, my photography lesson books, my dad's pictures than he took in North Korean mountains at the official national permission...
Third, they selectively chose my Twitter posts out of context and used them as evidence that I was benefiting North Korea.
You know Twitter is like everyday instant conversation. Indicting me of the tweets is like indicting me of recorded slip of the tongue.
Nevertheless, they selectively and sporadically got my Twitter posts out of the context to charge me - anyone could be charged if you were targeted like this. It's not fair at all.
If they still really want to charge me, they should analyze all my 70,000 tweets.
Fourth, the prosecutors are so irrationally jumping to their own conclusions.
They maintain "How could anyone think such pro-North-Korean tweets are jokes?!", "No third party person would take this as sarcasm," blah blah blah.
Who is their legitimate "third party person". Even though someone did not find it funny, how could they distinguish jokes from the serious and charge the latter.
They are doing nothing more than a 1980s slapstick comedy.
Lastly, their accusasion that I wrote and possessed pro-enemy materials... needs to define what is really pro-enemy(North Korea). You know how absurd it is.

I miss you so much.
Jail would not really change me.
I will stay healty and read many books. Meet happily soon.

p.s. After I am released, I don't think I would use Twitter again. Got fed up with this government. I am really scared. 

Bye for now.

Feb 4 2012
Jung-geun Park.

Footnotes
* Ms. Kwon Soo-jung was fired from Hyundai Motors just because she reported sexual harassment by her coworkers. She and other victims protested in front of South Korean Gender Equality Ministry building for its failing to dealing with the case at all; after months of protests she finally got her job back.

Translated by @gocherryJ