North Korea Sentences U S Man To 15 Years Hard Labor

[webfact]

North Korean state news: American sentenced to 15 years hard labor
By K.J. Kwon and Greg Botelho, CNN

(CNN) -- An American man detained in North Korea since last November has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, North Korean state news reported Thursday.

A story on the KCNA website indicated that Pae Jun Ho had been sentenced by North Korea's supreme court. The North has used that name to refer to the man U.S. authorities call Kenneth Bae.

A Korean-American, Bae entered North Korea on a valid tourist visa, a senior U.S. official told CNN on Monday. The official -- who spoke on background because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue -- said then that the State Department didn't know the exact charges against Bae.

Full story: http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/01/world/asia/north-korea-american-sentenced/

-- CNN 2013-05-02

related story:

American Is Facing Death Penalty In North Korea

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/636057-american-is-facing-death-penalty-in-north-korea/

[ExpatOilWorker]

Time to pick up a hammer and break some rocks, only 5,478 days to go.

[steelepulse]

Bargaining chip.

[Rionoir]

Why would anyone want to go on a tour of North Korea, particularly an American, and right now with all the tension between the countries. Bad plan.

[laurentbkk]

who is that nut case going for tourism in North Korea .... LOL

[qdinthailand]

It's called Missionary work! So now the U.S. has to bail out another missionary, too hung up on his religious principals to stay out of trouble.

[lee b]

May be he can join the North Korean football team doing there hard labour for failing to win the world cup !!

[rubberduck]

He made photo's of starving children, showing the real face of NK is a danger to the nation !

[midas]

He made photo's of starving children, showing the real face of NK is a danger to the nation !

I went as a tourist to North Korea and had a very interesting and informative trip. Everyone in my group were advised regarding the restrictions about taking photographs without the government guides saying it was okay to do so first. Nobody on my tour group had any difficulty with that.

And anyone that criticises this policy is a bit hypocritical considering you can even get arrested in USA just for taking photographs of the police doing their work?

Edited May 2, 2013 by midas

[ABCer]

He made photo's of starving children, showing the real face of NK is a danger to the nation !

I went as a tourist to North Korea and had a very interesting and informative trip. Everyone in my group were advised regarding the restrictions about taking photographs without the government guides saying it was okay to do so first. Nobody on my tour group had any difficulty with that.

And anyone that criticises this policy is a bit hypocritical considering you can even get arrested in USA just for taking photographs of the police doing their work?

This is a bit too much, midas!

I have never been a great fan of USA . But just comparing USA with NK makes you a lunatic. A raving lunatic Commy. What exactly 'interesting and informative' did they show to you and allow it be photographed?

[MobileContent]

Missionary work sounds to me a bit like spying. I knew some US missionaries that called Northern Thailand their home and they often popped into Northern Myanmar for the US State Department. Nothing new to that.

[bdru31]

He made photo's of starving children, showing the real face of NK is a danger to the nation !

I went as a tourist to North Korea and had a very interesting and informative trip. Everyone in my group were advised regarding the restrictions about taking photographs without the government guides saying it was okay to do so first. Nobody on my tour group had any difficulty with that.

And anyone that criticises this policy is a bit hypocritical considering you can even get arrested in USA just for taking photographs of the police doing their work?

Wow, you're quite the “open-minded” one, aren't you?

Look, I've often wondered if there might be more to the whole North Korea story myself. And I'd be the first to back up the idea that the American government and police have far more power than they should and often abuse it – it's one of the main reasons I chose to leave that country.'

But comparing the idea that you can get arrested for photographing police in the US with this incident, where a man was tried for the death penalty and then given 15 years hard labor for photographing poor people, is absolutely ridiculous. Neither use of power is right, in my opinion, but they're hardly on the same playing field either.

On top of that, how does an application of the law in the US make every person who disagrees with NK's policy a hypocrite? Not every person on here is American or supports our policies. In fact, not even being an American means you support our policies, as a great portion of our population disagrees with the way things are done.

So I'd love to hear you explain how the existence of that practice in America makes someone a hypocrite if they criticize the way North Koreans do something, especially to such an extreme, or call for this man to be freed.

Sometimes being too open-minded allows you to forsake common sense - a trait common among a lot of liberal, "college-educated" Americans these days, I might add (though we're not the only ones). If you'd have come in here and described your trip and offered an opinion of why it showed you a different side of North Korea, I'd have eagerly listened.

But your argument in the context you've provided it here is absolutely ludicrious and robs you of all crediblity, 6700+ posts or not.

Edited May 2, 2013 by bdru31

[upena]

Send in Dennis Rodman to negotiate his release

[GentlemanJim]

Send in Dennis Rodman to negotiate his release

Send in Enola Gay to negotiate his release.

[bri1guy]

Send in Dennis Rodman to negotiate his release

Maybe Bill Clinton again

[Suradit69]

He made photo's of starving children, showing the real face of NK is a danger to the nation !

Can't see photographing starving children as missionary work. Everyone knows there are starving children and adults in North Korea. If someone really wanted to do something to help the children, taking clandestine photos that would generate even more negative news about the regime would have to be one of the worst ways to go about it. And heaven help any starving person who appeared in the photos if published. They would probably be accused of collaboration with the enemy.

Edited May 2, 2013 by Suradit69

[Credo]

He made photo's of starving children, showing the real face of NK is a danger to the nation !

Actually he was trying to take pictures of well-nourished children, but he couldn't find any.

[uptheos]

He made photo's of starving children, showing the real face of NK is a danger to the nation !

Actually he was trying to take pictures of well-nourished children, but he couldn't find any.

Fat boy ate all the pies!

[Scott]

An off-topic, baiting post has been deleted.

[Loptr]

He made photo's of starving children, showing the real face of NK is a danger to the nation !

Ah, so he is a subversive in the eyes of NK. Lucky he didn't get the death penalty for such a heinous act.

Kim Jung-un has been quiet for the last few weeks. No more toys to throw from the pram, so he has to invent a new demon. Que rico!

[Scott]

An off-topic post with an oversized picture has been deleted.

Pictures which are not properly sized mess up the formatting of the page.

[Scott]

Off-topic posts deleted.

[Publicus]

Bargaining chip.

That's exactly what the Sejong Institute in Seoul says, which, as I'd posted to an earlier thread, seems to indicate this is a propitious open opportunity for the U.S. to send a high ranking or high status person to Pyongyang. Such names come to mind as former U.S. UN Ambassador Bill Richardson who has made several trips there in the past, former Prez Jimmy Carter who also has been a traveler/negotiator concerning N Korea. Perhaps Bill Clinton could make another trip, though I'd tend to doubt something that high profile. A lot depends on who Obama would give the nod to.

This is a good time for the U.S. to send someone to stand eye to eye with the gang in Pyongyang, perhaps Kim Jong Un himself. Size 'em up. Stare 'em in the eye, stare 'em down.

Here's the article about the perceived opening presented by the situation with the U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae going to prison. The first article mentions Bae regularly feeds starving children. A second link presents what's obvious but nonetheless is informative detailed reading.

http://www.businessinsider.com/dprk-american-citizen-15-years-labor-2013-5#ixzz2S9AAeB4J

North Korea's Prison Camps Are Absolutely Horrifying >

[Locationthailand]

Pae Jun Ho - a very American name...

[Trouble]

Why would anyone want to go on a tour of North Korea, particularly an American, and right now with all the tension between the countries. Bad plan.

I took a tour of North Korea last September. It was quite enlightening. As an American I wanted to see what I could of the country and form my own opinions. Tourists from China, Europe and even Japan were well represented. Was there a lot of propaganda? Sure. Were we allowed to go out on our own? NO. We did follow the rules. Nonetheless it was a great experience and there is probably nothing like seeing the control a government can have over every aspect of peoples lives. When I see the number of foreigner deaths in Thailand I dare say it might be generally safer to go to North Korea. Yes there is tension now but life goes on. Undoubtedly the problem for this guy is that he is Korean American and a good opportunity for the DPRK to make some kind of political point. Hope he gets out soon.

[NovaBlue05]

Imagine his surprise. I bet he never thought something bad like this could happen in a beautiful resort country like North Korea. He probably now wishes that he'd went hiking in Iran instead.

[Publicus]

Pae Jun Ho - a very American name...

I'm not sure I understand the nature of your post.

However, I can say the United States has people from everywhere in the world.

The Thai-American Joe Gordon, born in Thailand with the name Lerpong Wichaikhammatand, retains his Thai citizenship even though he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. Those few naturalized Americans who choose to retain the citizenship of their birth country do retain their birth name in order to continue to have a passport issued by their native country. (Perhaps Thaksin should try changing his name to one nobody in the world would recognize, travel incognito . )

Taking a more American sounding and looking name is common among many Koreans who relocate to the United States regardless of whether some may choose to retain their ROK citizenship also. I can't imagine any N Korean refugee escapee there wanting to or being allowed by the DPRK to retain citizenship of that rathole.

From 1920 to 1940, the number of immigrants to the United States who became citizens numbered about 200,000 each year; there was a large spike after World War II, and then the level reduced to about 150,000 per year until resuming to the 200,000 level beginning about 1980.^[51]

In the mid-1990s to 2009, the levels rose to about 500,000 per year with considerable variation.^[51] In 1996, more than one million people became citizens through naturalization.^[52]

In 1997, there were 1.41 million applications filed; in 2006, 1.38 million.^[50] In the mid-1990s, the number of naturalized citizens in the United States rose from 6.5 million to 11 million in 2002.^[53]

In 2003, the number of new citizens from naturalization was 463,204.^[10] In 2007, the number was 702,589.^[10] In 2007, 1.38 million people applied for citizenship creating a backlog.^[50] In 2008, applications decreased to 525,786.^{[50] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizenship_in_the_United_States}

The U.S. government determines the number of immigrants allowed to enter the country, based on quotas by country and region of the world. U.S. immigration policy for the past score of years has heavily favored Latin America while during the same period sharply limiting the number of Europeans.

^{Your own nationality and citizenship(s) would be of course your own business. Perhaps you could present some comparable data in respect to your own country. That of course would be up to you.}

Edited May 2, 2013 by Publicus

[IsaanUSA]

Pae Jun Ho - a very American name...

I'm American and it sounds American to me.

This guy got lucky he didn't receive the death penalty. I'm sure some higher ups had a discussion and a deal was made to spare him his life. Perhaps when Pae is free he can come back to America and investigate human trafficking in the US.

[garet]

It's called Missionary work! So now the U.S. has to bail out another missionary, too hung up on his religious principals to stay out of trouble.

Exactly! I see these american missionaries in Thailand too, trying to convert and brainwash the "heathen" Buddhists. There's a lot of Korean religious nutters in Thailand as well.

[NovaBlue05]

Too bad he's not a hot Korean babe. Then, maybe Bubba Clinton would come over to negotiate the release.