US student gets 15 years in North Korea for stealing poster
 

S**t :/


Otto Warmbier sentenced to hard labour over ‘severe and pre-planned’ crime

http://www.irishtimes.com/polopoly_f..._330/image.jpg

An American student who took a political propaganda poster from a hotel in the North Korean capital Pyongyang has been sentenced to 15 years hard labour for crimes against the state.
Otto Warmbier (21) an undergraduate student at the University of Virginia, was convicted after a one-hour trial on Wednesday morning at North Korea’s supreme court, China’s Xinhua news agency reported.
Last month he tearfully apologised at a news conference in Pyongyang for stealing the poster, saying he wanted it as a trophy for a friend’s mother and confessing that his crime was “very severe and pre-planned”.
He was at the end of a five-day New Year’s group tour of North Korea.
Westerners are regularly arrested in North Korea, many of them Christian evangelists trying to proselytise. They are often convicted of subversion crimes including illegal entry and leaving a Bible behind in a hotel.
A 60-year-old South Korean-born Canadian pastor was arrested in North Korea last year and given a life sentence for subversion, while earlier this month, a Korean-American called Kim Dong-chul was jailed for spying for South Korea.
In 2009, two American journalists were arrested in North Korea and freed after Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang, and in 2014, Pyongyang released three detained Americans.
North Korea has used jailed Americans in the past to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.
Earlier this week, US diplomat Bill Richardson, the former governor of New Mexico, met with two North Korean officials in New York to urge Mr Warmbier’s release on humanitarian grounds.

http://www.irishtimes.com/news/world...ster-1.2575149

It was very stupid of him but its a horrible price to pay, can't imagine how you'd cope with that

Couldn't have done it at a worse time for US-NK relations either so not much chance of him being shown any clemency

My brother was in North Korea a couple of years back as well :worry: I guess they focus more on the American tourists though. He said when their tour was going in they were allowed to either get the train or to fly but American tourists were only allowed to fly in for some reason

idiot boy

Yes this was thought to be
getting told off
and banned?

But of course it is "North" Korea

Let's hope the US can strongarm them into letting him go. NK is all bark and no bite when it comes to the national stage, if US exercises some pressure on them then they'll likely relent.

Its beyond me why any American would want to visit NK.
Poor guy.

its all related to the the USA and South Korea doing their annual practice. While NK are crazy to say the least, the USA and South Korea wind them up at this time every year with their exercises, talk about prodding a bear with a stick .... I'm sure the guy will be released in a couple of months when tensions subside

This exactly.

I think it'd be a fascinating country to visit

That's very one sided.You fail to mention NK's nuclear tests and firing missiles off the coast.

they did that in response to the exercises. The same predictable stuff happens every year :laugh:

The nuke test, was different of course

Sure but not if your an American.
This is what U.S. Passports and international travel have to say.

https://travel.state.gov/content/pas...l-warning.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/n...-trip-48113955

Yes a saw this the other day, bizzare

Insane. I honestly don't know why anyone would even want to visit the country in it's current state, just so dangerous.

Lucky bastard got off easy.

i wonder what they did to him in his jail cell to put him in this state... :worry:

wars have been started for less

This is so unbelievably tragic.

umm

He has now died: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-40335169

such a sad story

oh god, poor guy and his poor family. The country is disturbing, I can't believe my own brother actually visited there :worry:

rip

most people survive unharmed, you just have to bow down to the leader and be very respectful and you'll be fine. an unbearably sad story, but stealing a poster was a very silly thing to do - there's eyes and ears watching ur every move over there. i should be going on a year abroad to south korea next year and i was planning on making a trip to north korea but i just had an essay published in my uni journal criticising the government so on reflection i don't think that me going there would be the best idea anymore haha.