“HOW safe is it? Extremely safe!” So read the guidance for North Korea on the website of a Chinese travel company when Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old American student, signed up for a five-day trip in December 2015. Mr Warmbier was arrested the next month at the airport in Pyongyang, as he was leaving, and accused of attempting to steal a propaganda placard. He was tried in March 2016, and sentenced to 15 years’ hard labour. “I have been very impressed by the Korean government’s humanitarian treatment of severe criminals like myself,” he said during a televised confession.
The North Korean authorities denied access to Mr Warmbier after his trial. But on June 13th they released him, in a vegetative state, “on compassionate grounds”, after talks between the North’s ambassador to the UN and America’s point-man on the country. He was flown home to Ohio, where he died six days later. Doctors said he was...Continue reading
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