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

[Anonymous]

The US has the power to stop these trips. Why don't they do it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Common sense 101.
99.9% of Americans know enough not to travel to these countries. There is plenty of news about what happens to those foreigners who get arrested in North Korea. Of all the places on this green earth why would someone willingly choose to travel to N. Korea? The federal government has enough to do protecting its citizens in America.

[Anonymous]

Other countries get to make their own rules inside their own borders. You can think those rules are stupid, horrible, immoral, or ridiculous. That's fine. But if you make the choice to still go to that country anyway, you have to follow their rules. There is no reason the US government should have to try to swoop in like Superman, expending diplomatic and political capital, every time some moron refuses to acknowledge that they aren't in Kansas anymore and gets in entirely predictable trouble for ignoring another country's law that they should have followed.

I have zero trouble believing that this guy swiped a sign from the hotel. That sounds like exactly the kind of thing an idiot 25-year-old tourist would do. Do I believe it's a vast church conspiracy like the North Koreans claim, no, but taking the sign? Sure, I believe he did that. The North Korean playbook is to take an extremely minor offense and blow it up into an international incident, not manufacture an offense out of wholecloth.

If you go to North Korea, you had better be ready to bow to statues and not touch anything you aren't told to. If you go to the UAE, don't cry and whine when you're arrested for drinking or going into a hotel room with someone you're not married to. If you're in Germany, don't shout about your First Amendment rights when you get arrested for taking a selfie of doing the Nazi salute in front of the Brandenburg Gate. Other countries make their own laws and you don't have the right to ignore them or treat them lightly because you're an American. Don't like it? Don't go.

[Anonymous]

If you have doubts they released the video showing him take the poster:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3497017/The-worst-mistake-life-caught-film-Moment-American-student-21-steals-propaganda-poster-bearing-Kim-Jong-Il-North-Korean-hotel-earning-15-years-hard-labor.html

[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.

In order to visit the DPRK an American citizen would need to obtain a tourist visa from a DPRK embassy or consulate (as well as a multi-entry visa from the PRC). Typically this is done in Beijing while in transit. The State Department can't stop the DPRK from issuing tourist visas to Americsn citizens and, unlike Cuba, US law doesn't prohibit American citizens from traveling to North Korea.