Research shows that young people's brains are not fully developed when it comes to impulse control until mid to late twenties. College is a particularly vulnerable time I'd say when there is more independence and autonomy but still less judgment. Most make it through safely despite themselves. He did nothing that merited that punishment; I only have sympathy for Otto and his family. I wish there were a way to ban any American from traveling to markedly inhospitable parts of the world where visitors are sometimes seized and used as geopolitical pawns. If we don't have diplomatic relations with a country, we should not allow citizens to travel there as it leads to heart rending situations such as this.

This statement from the BBC is disgusting. Do they really think that NK prisons are paradise? They are responsible for Otto's condition REGARDLESS. The whole imprisonment was a crime from the start.


The BBC's Stephen Evans in Seoul says it remains to be seen if Mr Warmbier's illness is the direct result of brutality in prison.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I had to guess, he was not in a coma for a year. More likely, he ran into a medical issue and it became grave. At which point North Korea decided it was better to ship him home than deal with the fallout of having him die in their custody.

This. North Korea has no medical infrastructure. And having an American die in jail is a big problem for them. Once he was in a coma, there is no upside to them keeping him. Hopefully that means he still has a chance at recovery.

Hope! Change! Perhaps! These are the words of clueless liberals.

Know what should have been a big problem for N. Korea? HOLDING ONE OF OUR CITIZENS CAPTIVE

The problem started when he violated their laws.

We can’t be certain this poor kid actually did anything wrong. Why they arrested him is pretty much a mystery. We know what N Korea has said and we know what this kid has “confessed” to, but we can’t be sure any of that is accurate.
I am glad he is on his way home. Maybe our medical professionals can help him. I doubt N Korea went out of their way to give him adequate medical care.

He's not a kid. So you can stop That. There's not a doubt in my mind he did something wrong. I've seen with my own eyes people ( usually people of Otto's background) behaving appalingly when abroad even after clear warnings from staff, guide, teachers etc. that their behavior could have dire consequences not just for them, but the entire group. Doesn't stop these kind of people because they are raised to believe they can do as they please.

Don't like the laws. Can't follow the rules . Stay home.

Take out the travel abroad part and it sounds like that 'kid' Michael Brown, now doesn't it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I had to guess, he was not in a coma for a year. More likely, he ran into a medical issue and it became grave. At which point North Korea decided it was better to ship him home than deal with the fallout of having him die in their custody.

This. North Korea has no medical infrastructure. And having an American die in jail is a big problem for them. Once he was in a coma, there is no upside to them keeping him. Hopefully that means he still has a chance at recovery.

Hope! Change! Perhaps! These are the words of clueless liberals.

Know what should have been a big problem for N. Korea? HOLDING ONE OF OUR CITIZENS CAPTIVE

The problem started when he violated their laws.

ThankYou!
I'm so tired of people acting like this is a 12 year old or15 year old with limited understanding . We're talking about a 20 something college student not a boy or a kid, but an adult. An adult that was capable of knowing and following the laws of the land he was in.
You don't like the laws stay the eff out of the country.

From what I understand, TIME magazine has been running article(s) about young adults going to N. Korea and daring to challenge their laws, making the whole thing seem like a really cool idea. Those articles seem to fire up youth going there.

It's amazing how liberals love to blame a white college kid.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It makes me angry as hell that the North Koreans would treat an American this way, and I hope they pay a very heavy price for their misconduct. They are the absolute scum of the earth.

Are Americans scum of earth too? Just curious.

Because we detained and tortured innocent men at Gitmo, and those men received nothing close to due process.

Innocent? Please! Do you really think our military invaded quiet sheep farmers and took them 'just because'?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No red flags here, pun intended. I mean seriously, how is this in any way a good idea? The State Department travel warnings are issued for a reason.

http://www.youngpioneertours.com/

Whatever. The point is not how he got there, but N. Korea's actions towards this student and the fact they probably killed him. I want to know why he was left there to literally die by the Obama administration.

I'm not interested in sending abunch of 18 year olds to fight in North Korea because some spoiled, stupid 20 year old could not stay the frack out of a forbidden zone. It doesn't take a genius to realize that NK is off limits for tourism. The Chinese don't even go there for vacation

And I'm not going to have one whit of empathy for any liberal that lives on Capitol Hill and is attacked, knowing how dangerous the surrounding neighborhood is. That's spoiled and stupid behavior. It doesn't take a genius to realize you could get robbed and killed.

DP. Is someone on this forum actually so stupid that he or she really just compared Capitol Hill to North Korea???

Dear lord.

Yep, that's exactly what I'm doing. I see a bunch of liberals who are blaming the kid and his parents because he's white. Yet all you have is empathy for idiots attacked on Capitol Hill, knowing full well that areas close by are war zones. I seem to remember demands for security and desire for your own weapons after the last spate of attacks in that area.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You mean a communist government killed an American student. Super fishy? How harsh. This one is on Obama

Oh, come on. The kid was imprisoned for fucking around in a forbidden area and taking down posters. How is that Obama's fault?

I hope he is okay.

Let's start with the concept of 'f*ing around in a forbidden area and taking down posters' and being pulled out of an airport and imprisoned for hard labor over it. Now let's discuss the idea that if he DID contract botulism, how did that taint the North Korean prison food supply? I'm sure it was an accident that the food was bad. Now let's add to that if it wasn't botulism, hard labor in a North Korean prison camp couldn't possibly lead to an accident, heatstroke, hypothermia, etc, right?

Obama, Hillary, left him there to rot. Trump isn't even 6 months into his administration, and the guy is released. And are working on the release of other Americans, as they did prior to this one.

Reminds me of Iran taking our diplomats hostage. Carter failed to get them out. But as soon as Reagan took over, they were released. Iran had originally demanded all of the shah's wealth. But Iran refused the hostages for nothing more than a promise that we would unfreeze their assets.

Anonymous wrote:Many on this forum have no empathy. What would you do if it were your kid? Mean bitches

My kid is smart and would NEVER travel to North Korea.

Anonymous wrote:Glad to hear that you and your kids are so perfect and never make a mistake! How do you live having to interact with the rest of us mere mortals who do occasionally make mistakes? It must. be very hard on you !!

Not really.

Glad to hear that you and your kids are so perfect and never make a mistake! How do you live having to interact with the rest of us mere mortals who do occasionally make mistakes? It must. be very hard on you !!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I had to guess, he was not in a coma for a year. More likely, he ran into a medical issue and it became grave. At which point North Korea decided it was better to ship him home than deal with the fallout of having him die in their custody.

This. North Korea has no medical infrastructure. And having an American die in jail is a big problem for them. Once he was in a coma, there is no upside to them keeping him. Hopefully that means he still has a chance at recovery.

Hope! Change! Perhaps! These are the words of clueless liberals.

Know what should have been a big problem for N. Korea? HOLDING ONE OF OUR CITIZENS CAPTIVE

The problem started when he violated their laws.

We can’t be certain this poor kid actually did anything wrong. Why they arrested him is pretty much a mystery. We know what N Korea has said and we know what this kid has “confessed” to, but we can’t be sure any of that is accurate.
I am glad he is on his way home. Maybe our medical professionals can help him. I doubt N Korea went out of their way to give him adequate medical care.

He's not a kid. So you can stop That. There's not a doubt in my mind he did something wrong. I've seen with my own eyes people ( usually people of Otto's background) behaving appalingly when abroad even after clear warnings from staff, guide, teachers etc. that their behavior could have dire consequences not just for them, but the entire group. Doesn't stop these kind of people because they are raised to believe they can do as they please.

Don't like the laws. Can't follow the rules . Stay home.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If I had to guess, he was not in a coma for a year. More likely, he ran into a medical issue and it became grave. At which point North Korea decided it was better to ship him home than deal with the fallout of having him die in their custody.

This. North Korea has no medical infrastructure. And having an American die in jail is a big problem for them. Once he was in a coma, there is no upside to them keeping him. Hopefully that means he still has a chance at recovery.

Hope! Change! Perhaps! These are the words of clueless liberals.

Know what should have been a big problem for N. Korea? HOLDING ONE OF OUR CITIZENS CAPTIVE

The problem started when he violated their laws.

ThankYou!
I'm so tired of people acting like this is a 12 year old or15 year old with limited understanding . We're talking about a 20 something college student not a boy or a kid, but an adult. An adult that was capable of knowing and following the laws of the land he was in.
You don't like the laws stay the eff out of the country.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fred Warmbier criticized the Obama administration for not doing enough to secure his son’s release.

“With the last administration, Otto seemed to be an unwanted distraction, and they urged us to keep quiet. Now the new administration is there, so we’ve decided to start speaking out,” he said in April.

“We know that the administration has been challenged by bigger issues than Otto, but we don’t understand why diplomacy on a different track to get Otto and the other detainees out can’t be going on at the same time,” Warmbier’s mother Cindy added.

Raise your hand if your are shocked that this kid's parents put pressure on the Obama Administration to get their kid home. Of course they did.

Of course, it would have been far simpler if they had put pressure on their kid not to go to North Korea in the first place...

t would have been far simpler not to raise a spoiled brat. Without a doubt this man ( he was not a child) was rarely if ever told no, instead his parents focused on sending him to elite schools, private lessons, buying him fancy cars and toys etc for good grades, and failing to instill in him any sense of anything.

It's unfortunate that his first brush with consequences will likely be his death, but this should serve as a harsh reminder to what the consequences can be when we raise kids and not adults.

Anonymous wrote:You mean a communist government killed an American student. Super fishy? How harsh. This one is on Obama

My bad . Didn't know NoKo was the new hot spot for spring breakers. Seriously, why was he there?

Anonymous wrote:This was a UVA sponsored trip? That sounds unlikely.

No, it wasn't. It was UVA to Hong Kong. The kid decided to go to North Korea (?) on his own. I've seen his family interviewed and they've taken responsibility for that decision saying "If we had known about N. Korea, we wouldn't have allowed him to go". I don't know if the kid went and told his parents as he was going or the parents OK'd it not knowing of the danger.