You also have to remember. This is N Korea, there are not a whole lot of foreigners there, surely not a lot of people his size and posture. I imagine there are also collaborative evidences too, ie. him staying at that hotel …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tourism_in_North_Korea
About 1500 westerners visiting N. Korea every YEAR.
The guy in the article on the previous page said he was told there were a total of 100 tourists in the country at that time. I am sure, those numbers can be verified by the US consulate.
Isn’t it possible that they shot the video AFTER they arrested him, forced him to take part, then offered it as proof?
^^ Maybe. Or maybe he’s a naive young American who though he’d bring himself a fun souvenir from his trip to NK. And of course he had no clue that one dumb move would be exploited by a psychotic regime. I’m sure eventually the US will find a way to persuade NK to let him go – but in the meantime, he may get a taste of forced labor in NK which, from all accounts, resembles that of Nazi concentration camps…
Stupidity should not equal 15 years of hard labor. I doubt he will survive.
North Korean “Labor Camps” are concentration camps and they function like Nazi camps (NOT death camps like Auschwitz, but concentration camps- think Dachau). People aren’t supposed to survive them. People are no longer seen as human, their lives or personalities don’t exist and must be erased, and all are submitted to arbitrary rules - you can be tortured, beaten, starved, fed to dogs for fun. There are no laws, no “reason” . HOWEVER, because these camps are also seen as top-secret, odds are that the kid won’t be actually sent to one. He’ll be kept in very unpleasant conditions -hardship, shortage of food, humiliations, beatings, but not “torture for fun” or starvation - until the NK governement gets what it is they took him for (he’s simply a bargaining chip).
The U.S. consulate where? In what country?
The State Department doesn’t write these things for fun.
My guess is that he did it to collect a souvenir. Obviously beyond stupid as he now realizes. I don’t think he will serve the full sentence, someone will make a kiss-up trip and get him out. Didn’t Dennis Rodman (of all people!) do this a few years ago?
A UVA student does not lie, cheat or steal or tolerate those who do. Honor code. Complete frame up.
The U.S. doesn’t have a consulate in North Korea, because we don’t have any relations with North Korea.
ETA: In fact, according to North Korea, we are still at war with them. A peace treaty was never signed. Only an armistice exists.
15 years in a hard labor camp in NK IS a slow, painful death sentence, most likely by tuberculosis. TB is rampant in prisons - all over the world.