A 45-year-old pastor who allegedly accompanied a teenager to Turkey to join the Islamic State denied having any knowledge of or involvement in the teenager's plan.
According to AllKpop, the pastornamed only as Hong said he accompanied the 17-year-old, identified only as Kim, as far as Kilis on the Turkey-Syria border because he feared that Kim was suicidal and kill himself.
"I accompanied a kid who was scarred and said he was going to kill himself," Hong told AllKpop.
Kim disappeared while on a trip to Turkey, and had allegedly run off to join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Hong, a pastor who is also a close family friend of Kim's, accompanied the teenager to Istanbul and eventually to the border town of Kilis. Hong was accused of being involved in the plan after being uncooperative with the authorities in the investigation of the teenager's disappearance. He also reportedly waited for two days before reporting Kim's disappearance to the Korean embassy in Turkey.
Hong told AllKpop that Kim had told him he would go to Turkey even if he had to go alone. He also claimed that he did not know Kilis was on the border with Syria, and that Kim had insisted on going there right after arriving in Istanbul.
"I only followed Kim to Kilis because he wanted to go; I didn't know that Kilis was at the Syria border. I had difficulty asking for buses to go there for Kim," Hong said.
Hong also explained his late reporting of Kim's disappearance to the embassy. "I didn't know in what way the child had disappeared. At first I couldn't contact the Korean embassy and I reported him missing to the police, but it was no use," he clarified.
The pastor also revealed that Kim promised that he would start a "new kind of life" after returning to Korea from Turkey.
