Man Held, Freed by N. Korea Dies in Apparent Suicide

An American who had been jailed as a spy in North Korea was found shot to death at a ramshackle hotel Wednesday in an apparent suicide, police said.

Evan C. Hunziker, 26, died in the restaurant-bar area of the Olympus Hotel, where the self-styled missionary had been living and working since North Korea released him from three months of captivity. Hunziker said he had intended to spread the Gospel in that country.

Police said no suicide note was found.

Edwin Hunziker said he was saddened and bewildered by the death of his son, who arrived back in the United States on the day before Thanksgiving.

“I don’t know what happened to this young fellow. I thought he was doing so well” since his return, the elder Hunziker said.

He said he had noticed what looked like rope burns--two red marks on his son’s throat--after the younger Hunziker came back from Korea. He said his son wouldn’t answer questions about them, but the North Koreans said he had tried to kill himself.

Hunziker was arrested in August when he illegally entered North Korea from China. He denied accusations of spying for South Korea. His relatives maintained he had found God while serving a jail sentence in Alaska for drunk driving and went to Asia to spread the Gospel. Hunziker’s mother and his ex-wife are South Korean, and he spoke the language.

Hunziker’s release was seen as a gesture by North Korea to thaw relations strained by his arrest and by the September incursion of a North Korean submarine into South Korean waters.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Nicholas Burns called Hunziker’s death “a very, very sad case.”

Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.), who had negotiated Hunziker’s release, said: “I am very saddened by this sudden turn of events. Evan was a gentle young man who sought peace for all people.”