I don’t think the US government is recruiting college students to steal posters.
He obviously was given a “confession” to memorize and regurgitate, as a native English speaker would never say it that way.
Praying for him and his parent and siblings.
“So do you think that in his statement where he blamed United States administration was made under duress?”
Um, yes. It also is worded in such a way that it sounds as though the sentence was written by a non-native English speaker.
Unfortunate, but what on earth would be going through your mind (or not!) to go to North Korea?!
@GnocchiB well yes, from what I read online of the circumstances, it seems plausible that the CIA orchestrated this confrontation. The kid may have watched The Interview and thought he was Rogin or Franco. But I also believe the North Koreans are paranoid and delusional. Why isn’t anyone talking about the tour operators?
My son and I were discussing whether the tour operators might be liable if the student did not steal anything. The story locally now is that he stole a banner for the Z Society but they deny it. I have always been doubtful that he stole anything because who would be that stupid? I get angry with people who brush aside State Department warnings but if it were my child I’d want the government to pull out all stops to get him released. He looks as though he has been beaten or drugged. This may in fact be revenge for “The Interview.”
So sad. In his statement, he said he was offered a reward by a member of his church for taking the banner.
Seriously, how preposterous !
Call me Nancy Drew, but there is a lot about this that doesn’t add up.
I’m thinking the CIA has bigger fish to fry.
I don’t dispute that.
Tour company is based in China (Young Pioneer Tours). That alone might be reason enough to select another company. This statement is on the front page of the company’s site:
- Young Pioneer Tours is an adventure travel company formed in 2008 and based in mainland China. Specialising in travel to North Korea, we are an adventure tour operator that provides “budget tours to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from”. *
@m0minmd Or Oliver Stone
Yes, we United Methodists are well known for shenanigans like this. My own church is festooned with trophies of this kind.
Not.
I don’t think you can take a single word Warmbier says while in North Korea as having any connection to truth one way or another. He is clearly being told what to say and (probably wisely) saying it. This is not a typical country we are dealing with.
The safest assumption is that North Korea saw a high profile tourist (clean cut college kid) they could use for their propaganda purposes and they choose to exploit the opportunity. Whether Warmbier did anything wrong or not is almost immaterial. Even if he did what he has “confessed” to is far from worthy of prison time.
I agree that North Korea is not a country I would travel to or encourage my kids to travel to but imagine the pain this poor man and his family are going through. I wouldn’t blame the victim here.
This is your basic hostage taking. Accuse probably rich kid of something, beat him up a little, get him to say what you want, then negotiate his release in exchange for something you need/want .
No one from any developed country should go to North Korea unless officially invited.
So now yes someone’s negotiating on this kid’s behalf.
It may not be a co-incidence that he was the last person in his group to go through Korean customs at the airport. If the others in the tour group had still been in the same room we’d at least have witnesses who could say whether or not there was a poster in his luggage. (Even if there was, it might well have been planted.) I was surprised by how popular this tour company seems to be; a lot of its tours are sold out. I don’t know how many of them are Americans.
The chief executive of the tour company is British, resident in China. He said the company has taken 7,000 tourists to North Korea and this is the first arrest.Of course, there’s no way of knowing how many of those were Americans. I was stunned by how many of the company’s tours are sold out. However, I’m sure the poor kid thought being on a tour would make it safe—you’re not going to accidentally wander into restricted territory.
I really feel for this kid. He is from near where I live and this is horrible. This will be called blaming the victim, however, taking a trip like this is inherently risky. There is probably few places in the world more dangerous just to visit. It’s kind of like climbing Mt. Everest. There is really a chance something could go horribly wrong and it has for this young man. We just had the return of a few others from N. Korea whose crimes were equally innocuous to most of us. I pray that our government can work something out to get this young man home quickly.
The issue isn’t the actual crime. It’s that the state can and will make up any reason whatsoever in order to arrest and sentence anyone at all on whatever whim suits them at the moment. The defense minister was executed with an anti-aircraft gun; Kim Jong Un’s uncle and aunt were also executed. And those were people he liked.
I think there is a video of the boy taking the sign. I am sure he thinks it’s just a prank as students here in the states do these things all the time.
Wrong place to be doing that. It’s N.K. and their gov can pretty much do what they want.
The sentence is unduly harsh but it is not gonna be that long. I am sure they are doing it just for propaganda purpose, NK just wants to look good. After some negotiations with high ranking members of the US gov, he will be released. It happened before.
Having said that, I think that boy is so sad, has no backbone, stick your head high and proud to be American for god’s sake. You know you have the backings of the US gov.
Sure, for every American who does stupid thing oversea, send a carrier group to take care of him/ her.
You will need a lot of ships.
Seriously?
This “boy” has probably been psychologically, if not physically, abused (or tormented) and his life could literally hang in the balance depending on what he does. And you want him to “stick his head high”? No, he is TERRIFIED. He isn’t a trained soldier or agent. He is a student who made a dumb, dumb, DUMB decision (going to NK) and is not in any way prepared to deal with what he’s going through.