Voluntarily walking into the maw of the beast

Today, a US citizen, Otto Warmbier, died after being released by the monsters in North Korea.

He had been tortured. I believe it was a form of strangulation, but whatever. Instead of killing him (they couldn't, after all, kill him outright like they do other North Koreans) they released him in a comatose state. His brain showed signs of long term asphyxiation.

Now WHY was he there in the first place?

Wellllllllll, the easiest way to explain this is for you to read

   “Without You There Is No Us” by Suki Kim

(Crown Books, 2014,  ISBN 978-0-307-72065-8 )

The author, a young woman, was hired by a Christian Evangelical church to teach English to North Korean elite male students.  This church somehow has wangled it's way into North Korea. Ostensibly, they are not supposed to prosetylize, or mention the buybull, or do anything but teach English, math, etc.

However, Ms. Kim revealed the church's plan: once Kim Jong None (yes, I know how to correctly spell the monster's name but I choose not to) is deposed, the church intends to be the first in the country, all ready to immediately go into full conversion mode. They plan on being on the ground running when the other religious cults are still fumbling about , trying to get a foothold in what they consider 'virgin territory'.  They are covert missionaries.  Quite literally, they are religious spies.

Do they think the North Koreans are so stupid as to not know this?

Do they really think revolution is even POSSIBLE in North Korea?

It is not. There has never been a country, a people more enslaved than the North Koreans. 

You must read two other books, 

“Escape from Camp 14” by Blaine Harden,

   “Dear Leader” by Jang-Jin Sun

as well as Kim's 

   “Without You There Is No Us” by Suki Kim. 

Ironically, the three books cover experiences of the three classes in North Korea: the elite "Dear Leader", the 'military/middle class" ("Without You") and the slave class, (Escape). If you read these three books (and I have three more in the pipeline, which I am trying to get to) you will have a good understanding of what life in North Korea is like. 

Revolution, uprising, change...none of it is possible. NONE. The current monster, Kim Jong, Un, very craftily put himself in power and ANYONE..even his own brother, his own uncle, his sister..who even thinks of doing something other than what Un wants, dies. AND so do their families. 

The teaching is done at the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology. This is, as far as I have read, is the only place where Americans and other foreigners can teach. 

Who..and what..are they teaching? 

They are teaching these young men...children, so to speak, of the privileged upper crust of North Korean government. These students-18-22 years of age, give or take, are not your typical college student. No, they are being groomed for positions in the NK government. Positions that include such things as: designing nuclear bombs and the missiles to carry them all the way to the mainland of the US.

They are learning to speak perfect English, and other languages, in order to infliltrate and act as spies in our country. These spies are also here to murder other Koreans who live lives of freedom in our country.

They are learning to hack into our computers, to disrupt the entire world's world wide web, as was seen just recently by the trojan virus they released that affected millions the world over. 

The church does not care about all of this. All they see is 'souls' to be won, so that they can gain a higher status in heaven. 

I don't know which is worse: North Korea is an enslaved country, where it's people eat grass (if they can find it) and its leader lives like a sultan and threatens America with (increasing success) bombing us with nuclear tipped missiles; or the evangelical christian church which is facilitating Kims reign of terror.

The church is doing it for the most selfish of reasons...first dibs on a people who have no chance whatsoever of being emancipated. Honestly, I don't see religious dictatorship being any different than secular dictatorship. Witness the Catholic Church's destruction of S.American culture. Oh, should I mention the Inquisition? It's all the same...complete control of people and the money they make.

This is what I have come to expect from fundamentalist christians. A willful refusal to see reality, a blind belief that they are accomplishing something worthwhile, and a willingness to go to any lengths in order to further their ideological culture. Oh, and a fourth: an inexplicable astonishment when the monsters teeth they  have put themselves in between finally bite. 

They're like some fool who sticks his hand into a crocodile's mouth and then are surprised when it bites it off. Duh??

Mr. Warmbier was on a tour run by the Chinese. I cannot believe he wasn't warned to be EXTREMELY circumspect in everything he did. Nevertheless, he did something extremely stupid: tried to steal a poster. What the poster said, I don't know but if it had a picture of any of the Kim's (grandfather, father and now son dictators), just touching it with irreverent hands warrants immediate execution. 

Ms. Kim was a covert spy all her own. She readily admits in her book to being an atheist, but hid this information from her evangelical christian peers to keep them from guessing what she was up to. That being, she was really a journalist, with full intentions of writing about her experiences in North Korea. 

Currently there are now three Americans being held in North Korean prisons after being accused of spying. They aren't the first three. No, there is a depressing number of idiots who think they are doing the Lord's work and voluntarily push their luck in North Korea, a dictatorship that has shown a hundred thousand times that it does not tolerate that stuff. 

It's always something religious.

I'm sorry, but I have no sorrow for someone who does this willingly and ideologically blind. I don't feel the need to go to extreme lengths to 'free them'. They did it to themselves. They walked into the slime pit that is North Korea and when they finally get arrested, want help to get out. 

I say no.No, you can't walk into North Korea..or any country, for that matter, and expect them to honor our Bill of Rights. As a tourist you have none. You are subject to that country's laws.  No, you may not teach the North Koreans how to defeat us. No, you may not go there. No, if you get stuck in a North Korean prison camp despite the many warnings, I don't feel the need to spring your dumb ass.