Otto Warmbier, a 22 year old US student who was traveling to North Korea with a Chinese tourist service, was returned to the US after 18 months imprisonment. The North Korean government charged him with theft of a Kim Jong Il poster. Warmbier was in a coma during his return to the US and died five days later. An MRI revealed he had suffered extensive loss of brain tissue. There were no visible physical marks on his body. North Korea claims he fell into a coma due to botulism. A claim completely refuted by American doctors who inspected and treated Warmbier. U.S. student held prisoner by North Korea dies days after release Otto Warmbier - Wikipedia This appears to be a clear killing of a US citizen at the hands of the North Korean government. Where does the US / North Korea relationship go from here? What about China?
He should have never entered North Korea, nor should anyone under any circumstances. That said, I still feel very bad for him and his family for having to go through this. He was a university student with a bright future ahead of him. They're saying it might have been waterboarding or some other oxygen deprivation torture. As far as US/NK relations, there are none As for China this really isn't their problem, they're probably not going to do anything different because of this.
A lot of people are saying he should have never entered North Korea. Given what has happened to him, it is easy to agree with that statement now. Having said that, it should be pointed out that "over 800" Americans travel to North Korea every year without incident. Over 800 Americans go to North Korea yearly. Otto Warmbier's death could change that. Warmbier wanting to check out this surreal country is not as crazy and uncommon as people think. Tourist agencies have been successfully operating frequently advertised trips into NK for years. Several of them specifically advertising that it is "safe for Americans", like the agency Warmbier used. Obviously, now that this has happened, North Korea tourism will never be the same, for Americans at least. Young Pioneer Tours, the agency Warmbier used, has already said they will stop taking Americans to NK because of this incident. TLDR: Now, in retrospect, Warmbier should have never gone to NK. Prior to this incident, almost a thousand Americans every year visited NK without arrest or prosecution. Warmbier's choice may have been exotic, but not considered overtly dangerous at the time it was made.
I agree that he shouldn't have travelled to NK given the country's reputation but at the same time, that doesn't excuse what happened. Let's say that he did in fact take that poster off the wall and intended to keep it. The punishment he received did not fit the crime. Something so petty should've just got him deported at most. While Americans do travel there, it's not a secret that it isn't truly safe for them. The US-NK relationship is at a low right now so at any moment the NK govt could detain an American for any reason, justified or not.
Agreed. Call me naive, but at this point I'd honestly be surprised if North Korea dared to touch another US citizen. We still don't know how the Otto Warmbier story will end, but I'm fairly certain if NK harmed another US citizen at this point, some type of shit would have to hit the fan. North Korea, rogue as it can be, has to be aware of this.
At some point it's gonna take a war in my opinion. They've had sanction after sanction after sanction leveled against them and nothing has changed.
What I'm interested in is whether the US will succeed in securing the release of the 3 other Americans that North Korea currently has detained. I think they have every right to demand that considering how they clearly abused this guy in prison. Maybe get the UN to threaten to cut humanitarian aid?
The temptation to pilfer a propaganda poster of the Dear Leader would be irresistible as fuck. It would definitely replace my dogeared Jimi Hendrix poster. That is why I could never visit.
If we are strictly dealing in the realm of sanctions, then the real sanction would be to impose trade embargoes on China, as long as they sponsor NK in any fashion. North Korea is nothing without China. This is of course unlikely, considering China's size in the world economy.
I'd hate to be the Trumpster with this issue. You're damned if you do. You're damned if you don't. If you do nothing , your enemies will say you let an American get killed by NK without doing anything. If you actually make military moves to penalize NK, then your enemies will say you are a warmonger.
Lol of course some racist black woman had to write an article about how it's his fault for having white privilege. North Korea Proves Your White Male Privilege Is Not Universal | HuffPost I mean come on, he's white, male and comes from a wealthy family, he was totally asking for it!
Imagine the cheek of NK locking someone up, preventing access and waterboarding/torturing them? Guantanamo anyone? At least Otto got a trial. This is a very sad case and I feel sorry for his family but the US can't/won't do jackshit about this.
Saw that the other day. If they had any integrity or sanity left, Huffington Post should be ashamed of themselves for publishing that evil. Horrible website with increasingly propagandized and moronic "articles". Then again, why am I not surprised,