Another American citizen is detained in North Korea, taking total to four
Source: The Washington Post
By Anna Fifield May 7 at 9:40 AM
TOKYO North Korea has detained another American who worked at a private university in Pyongyang, taking to four the number of U.S. citizens who are being held by Kim Jong Uns regime.
Kim Hak-song, who worked for the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, was detained Saturday, North Koreas state news agency said.
A relevant institution of the DPRK detained American citizen Kim Hak Song on May 6 under a law of the DPRK on suspicion of his hostile acts against it, the Korean Central News Agency said, using the abbreviation for the Norths official name.
No other details about Kim were immediately available.
Two weeks earlier, North Korea detained another U.S. citizen, Kim Sang-dok or Tony Kim, as he waited to board a flight at Pyongyang airport. He had been teaching a class in international finance and management at the same university, known as PUST.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/another-american-citizen-is-detained-in-north-korea-taking-total-to-four/2017/05/07/2acb8952-3326-11e7-99b0-dd6e94e786e5_story.html?utm_term=.322da94c6df8&wpisrc=al_alert-world&wpmk=1
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,075 posts)Anybody traveling to N Korea is nuts. They are beginning to hate everybody, including these days little ol' Malaysia. Anybody can end up a hostage.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/dennis-rodman-north-korea/
Hint: He endorsed tRump
I hope that the US government makes it clear to Americans traveling there. It should have a policy to provide minimal services to get them returned but be clear that they are basically on their own.
nycbos
(6,044 posts)https://travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/alertswarnings/north-korea-travel-warning.html
The government can warn people but it can't protect them from being stupid.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,075 posts)They do not have a right to escape the consequences of their stupidity, but sometimes they are granted that privilege.
nycbos
(6,044 posts)My point was that the warning system that you suggested be in place already exists.
Bernardo de La Paz
(49,075 posts)riversedge
(70,464 posts)to leave NK at this time.
nycbos
(6,044 posts)Last edited Sun May 7, 2017, 11:40 AM - Edit history (1)
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Like those guys who get arrested by Iran because they're walking inside the border on a hiking trip. Or those others who got picked up in North Korea before when they went across the border illegally. Or that young man who is serving time in prison there for stealing a govt sign from his hotel lobby wall on a lark, when his group was on a tour excursion from China. How stupid do you have to be to do that? And I question the wisdom of the group going on an excursion into North Korea.
nycbos
(6,044 posts).... he told graduates "you will meet a lot of people who are book smart but have zero common sense."
These are the folks who have zero common sense.
lunasun
(21,646 posts)the hate for the US is real . I am fine with just photos or documentaries ......
Rebl2
(13,611 posts)that goes to places like NK should not expect our government to come save them. You see this time and time again. Someone goes to a country that hates us, then expects to be rescued by our government. No more.
treestar
(82,383 posts)maybe it is NK gospel that Kim Il Sung discovered the theory of relativity and you can get in trouble that way?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)The school is funded by evangelical religious groups.
They are aware of the risk they are taking.
treestar
(82,383 posts)He is truly being persecuted for being a Christian. Like the real way. Not like the "persecution" suffered here by those who can't force their views on everyone else.
I mean, yeah, when you look at it their way, getting locked up means they're doing it right.
It's too bad that Protestants don't give out "sainthood" awards for these feats of perseverance. But the mindset of "faith in the face of persecution" equips them for it psychologically. The worse it gets, they know the better they're doing.
EarthFirst
(2,906 posts)Don't be surprised with the outcome.
Now the State Department is devoting time and resources to extracting an American citizen who, upon realizing the consequences; engaged in an activity which they knew would not be tolerated.
Isn't there a mega-church millionaire that can fund this?
Honeycombe8
(37,648 posts)Igel
(35,390 posts)It pointed out that the program existed and made it high profile. It was against the program, not because it proselytized--it made clear that such things were carefully monitored and the curriculum carefully controlled--but because it helped the North.
It also made the participants higher profile. Much higher.
At the same time, it's nice to know there are still countries that buy and sell people. Yet in this case, we find reasons to blame and shame those captured and held until the right purchase price can be found.
Yet we go out of our way to exculpate somebody who abandons his post and lets himself be captured by the enemy, or reporters who go behind enemy lines under cover and make contact with either subversive groups in enemy-held territory or with the enemy himself.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)I think the perceived inconsistency you are making perhaps does not capture the preliminary assessment of whether the pursuit is ultimately worthwhile. Getting North Koreans out of one oppressive system of mind control into another one, is a topic on which opinions may vary.
There is a substantial evangelization effort going on, under ground rules which are there for testing. The problem seems to have arisen through recent reportage on how the organization is funded.
And, sure, to the extent that I am sure these people may be contacted for interviews or more voluntary confidential debriefing on what sliver of perspective they may provide on internal conditions, they provide valuable information.
They do have an agenda, however, on which minds may differ.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)They are big on the "Paul converted his jailers" thing.
Rustyeye77
(2,736 posts)What...he was breathing?
Permanut
(5,714 posts)the Gropenfuhrer, said the North Korean problem "would be taken care of". I'm sure it will happen any minute now.
Nitram
(22,971 posts)I'm beginning to lose my empathy for these idiots.
jmowreader
(50,601 posts)Let me guess: he "accidentally forgot" his Bible at a restaurant, and the cops hauled him in for it.
brush
(53,978 posts)Last edited Mon May 8, 2017, 09:32 AM - Edit history (1)
trump is itching for a war to say his presidency from the Russian collusion investigation.
Rhiannon12866
(206,858 posts)updated 2:51 p.m. EDT, Wed August 5, 2009
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- It took a U.S. former president with global celebrity status to free two American journalists from a North Korea prison.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee arrived back in the United States Wednesday morning with former President Bill Clinton, who flew to North Korea to negotiate their release after they were sentenced to a labor camp.
<snip>
Some heavyweights were turned down by the North Koreans: former Vice President Al Gore, a co-founder of the media outfit the women were working for when they were arrested, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations whose previous missions to North Korea included negotiating the release of a detained American.
Lower-level envoys such as former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and current Korea Society Chairman Donald Gregg, Sig Harrison, an expert on North Korean nukes who has traveled there several times, and Han Park, a scholar at the University of Georgia, all offered their services.
Sen. John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was also closely involved in coordinating efforts with the White House and State Department to free the women.
According to sources intimately involved with the efforts, Sen. John Kerry -- chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- received an official invitation to visit Pyongyang to facilitate their release and open a larger dialogue on the nuclear issue after several weeks of quiet direct diplomacy between Kerry and his aides and North Korea.
In the end, it was Clinton whom North Korea wanted.
More: http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/08/05/nkorea.journalists.background/