How does this happen? Why on earth did this guy have to be in N. Korea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Wow ... I know DCUM is full of bitches, but this is a new low. I can't imagine what the kid's parents are going through. My mom was a saint and my brothers did a lot of dumb things. They were lucky to never end up in jail or in some crazy trouble like this.

Knock on wood, I have the most perfect daughter anyone would want...24, Ivy League, job, gorgeous, nice, etc. But, if anything ever happened to her, I would do ANYTHING to help. You all need HEART. Go to church bitches!

I'm beginning to think some of these posters might have a much higher opinion of North Korea than we do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no patience for this sort of thing. When you go to another country, you follow their rules. End of story. Does not matter if you think they are stupid, wrong, a joke, or that you are somehow special because you have a US passport. You follow the rules. In North Korea, that means not putting a toe out of line, bowing to statues, pretending you believe their lies, and doing exactly what your guide tells you and nothing else. It is not a secret what will happen if you don't. Don't like it or don't want to? Stay home. I'm sure the charges here were ridiculously trumped up, but this kid probably did do something to provoke them, like try to steal a souvenir, because he's an idiot. Now we have to waste resources and political capital trying to get this moron out of the mess he put himself in.

It is quite possible to visit North Korea, see their tourist traps, and leave again without winding up in a gulag. Plenty of people do it. I don't think going there as Joe Tourist is stupid as long as you behave and know what you're getting into and what could go wrong. But seeing if you can be the "brave" idiot to sneak in a Bible or borrow a propaganda poster or spit on a Kim Il Sung statue? Stay home and grow up.

What tourist traps? The Chosin Reservoir? Nothing in NK I'd want to see.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am tired of this. There is no economics project that requires anyone to be in N. Korea.
The same goes for the ones who just had to go hiking on the Syria Iran border, and Mr Weinstein in Pakistan, Alan Gross in Cuba.
WHAT are these fools thinking.
I know that everyone wants to do something crazy to discuss at parties and distinguish themselves, but please.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/uva-student-held-in-north-korea-confesses-to-severe-crimes/2016/02/29/b561da4b-4dbd-4819-94da-9907fcc472a2_story.html?hpid=hp_local-news_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

When something like this happens, I think the same.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please let's just leave the guy there. No more rescuing of these idiots.

The record is pretty clear that contrary to other posters beliefs, we really don't send in the "Delta Force" to rescue any of those held overseas.

Sorry to his parents, but no single American is worth going to war over or risk losing high valued assets.

Such compassionate liberalism. Y'all are showing your true colors

I agree with the first pp. Do we really want to spend millions getting him out or risking the lives of serivce members?

A good friend recently went to Iran for fun. She said that if anything happened, she'd just run to the Canadian embassy. Her ignorance was astounding. There are real people out there risking their lives for these idiots when they get in trouble.

There are service members who would welcome getting this guy out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please let's just leave the guy there. No more rescuing of these idiots.

The record is pretty clear that contrary to other posters beliefs, we really don't send in the "Delta Force" to rescue any of those held overseas.

Sorry to his parents, but no single American is worth going to war over or risk losing high valued assets.

Such compassionate liberalism. Y'all are showing your true colors

Dumba$$ PP. You don't know what political persuasion the PPs are. Leave your stupid partisan Republican comments out of a thread about this poor kid.

[Anonymous]

The North Koreans claim he stole a propaganda poster. Do we really believe everything they say? His "admission" was clearly obtained under duress. He is apparently a very nice kid.



I agree, and he appeared to be under the influence of something as they marched him down the hallways. I think the US should forbid anyone from going to North Korea.

+1 This kid may have done absolutely NOTHING. It's likely that the North Korean government just wants some attention (again). They seem to want us to notice them every once in a while. The US needs to keep anyone from traveling to NK no matter how old they are. They are huge targets. As for this young man, we need to get him out of there. What kind of a country are we? We are better than the N. Koreans because we care about each citizen and the sacredness of each life. We are also forgiving people. They are who they are and we are not them and will never accept how they treat human beings. We care for each other and we will try to help this young man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

The North Koreans claim he stole a propaganda poster. Do we really believe everything they say? His "admission" was clearly obtained under duress. He is apparently a very nice kid.



I agree, and he appeared to be under the influence of something as they marched him down the hallways. I think the US should forbid anyone from going to North Korea.

+1 This kid may have done absolutely NOTHING. It's likely that the North Korean government just wants some attention (again). They seem to want us to notice them every once in a while. The US needs to keep anyone from traveling to NK no matter how old they are. They are huge targets. As for this young man, we need to get him out of there. What kind of a country are we? We are better than the N. Koreans because we care about each citizen and the sacredness of each life. We are also forgiving people. They are who they are and we are not them and will never accept how they treat human beings. We care for each other and we will try to help this young man.

And I am sure that we have already started to use some backchannels to do just that. That's only half the point. The other half of the issue is that he travelled to a nation that we do not have good relations with and flouted the laws of that nation. We can all agree that the leaders of NK are squirrel crap crazy. It is common knowledge and everyone knows it. But guess what? It is THEIR country. We have to stop thinking that we are John Wayne and can go to these countries and do what we want. He HAD to know that being an American, as soon as he touched down he was flagged. He likely had someone following him and in NK, people get REWARDED for turning others in. And the State Department DOES tell people not to travel there. I DO have sympathy for the kid. It was a stupid prank. But it is no secret how NK rolls - why did he think he was immune to it? I think he will be let go at some point - a point that allows NK to save face at our expense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The North Koreans claim he stole a propaganda poster. Do we really believe everything they say? His "admission" was clearly obtained under duress. He is apparently a very nice kid.

I agree, and he appeared to be under the influence of something as they marched him down the hallways. I think the US should forbid anyone from going to North Korea.

The US strongly advises against travel to North Korea. If the naive and foolish still insist on going there they better behave. A US citizen stepping even slightly out of line is a propaganda gift to these countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the USA issue passports for people to go to these countries?

Do you mean Visa's? Passports allow you to travel internationally, but visa's are required for certain countries.

Are "visa's" the same as visas?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
I worry more about the grey zones. My godmother travels regularly to Afghanistan to visit the mountain village she is helping support. She and other charitable foreigners are closely monitored by the government because they always fear spies. They are also at risk of being assaulted by robbers and/or murdered by militants.

And right here? This is the issue. Plenty of poor needy folk right there in the US.

Liberal schools are so busy telling kids that we conservatives are paranoid racists, and yet...

Huh? I think the guy who went to N Korea is clearly stupid but to argue that Americans shouldn't help the needy overseas and only do charitable work in the US is a bit ignorant and lacking in compassion. Poor people in third world countries generally gave it so much worse than in this country- in many places there is no "food stamps" equivalent, no public hospitals, no government aid at all. If it weren't for international aid organizations there would be no help at all. And Afghanistan is exactly the kind of place where a bit if American goodwill could go a long way in the hearts and minds of its citizens. I applaud the PP's godmother for her bravery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Please let's just leave the guy there. No more rescuing of these idiots.

The record is pretty clear that contrary to other posters beliefs, we really don't send in the "Delta Force" to rescue any of those held overseas.

Sorry to his parents, but no single American is worth going to war over or risk losing high valued assets.

Such compassionate liberalism. Y'all are showing your true colors

Such fiscal conservatism, to spend millions just to bail out one person who made a stupid decision of his own choice, knowing full well the consequences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The North Koreans claim he stole a propaganda poster. Do we really believe everything they say? His "admission" was clearly obtained under duress. He is apparently a very nice kid.

I agree, and he appeared to be under the influence of something as they marched him down the hallways. I think the US should forbid anyone from going to North Korea.

The US strongly advises against travel to North Korea. If the naive and foolish still insist on going there they better behave. A US citizen stepping even slightly out of line is a propaganda gift to these countries.

The problem is that a US citizen doesn’t have to step out of line.
If they want to, they will arrest you and charge you with a crime, whether you did it or not.
You are simply never safe in some of these countries. Ever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The North Koreans claim he stole a propaganda poster. Do we really believe everything they say? His "admission" was clearly obtained under duress. He is apparently a very nice kid.

I agree, and he appeared to be under the influence of something as they marched him down the hallways. I think the US should forbid anyone from going to North Korea.

The US strongly advises against travel to North Korea. If the naive and foolish still insist on going there they better behave. A US citizen stepping even slightly out of line is a propaganda gift to these countries.

The problem is that a US citizen doesn’t have to step out of line.
If they want to, they will arrest you and charge you with a crime, whether you did it or not.
You are simply never safe in some of these countries. Ever.

And the United States government has made that abundantly clear, time after time. They've said over and over that people should not go to North Korea, that it is not safe to travel to, yet people still go.

With the war exercises with South Korea going on and all of the posturing and threats associated with it from North Korea, I don't see how we can prioritize issues like this right now. I feel awful for this young man and his family but I don't think there is much chance that anything can be done for him currently. Maybe once the joint military exercises have finished and tensions have cooled but it's going to be a while.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:poor guy.

no american citizen should be allowed to travel to north korea, or most muslim countries either.

We should shut the access to these countries like NOrth Korean, Pakistan, SA, Yemen.

This is an issue of personal responsibility. The US State Department has always advised Americans to avoid traveling to North Korea. Why on earth do these people put themselves in these situations?

no it is not

the Federal government has the insight and knowledge about what is going on. come on, he did a stupid thing, but how could he have known about this yet ALL the diplomats knew what could happen. our gov should protect our citizens and one of the ways it should do this is by restricting travel to North Korea for americans with us passports. I am sure they figure out a way to do this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I honestly can't muster one iota of sympathy for this guy. Save your dumbass pranks for Amsterdam not North freakin Korea.

+1