Tag: detainee

Former American Detainee In North Korea, Aijalon Gomes Found Burned to Death in San Diego

Aijalon Gomes is a name that is a blast from the past due to his time in 2010 when he crossed border into North Korea for religious reasons.  Well now he is back in the news after experiencing a horrible death:

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter with Aijalon Gomes in 2010

Aijalon Gomes stepped on the world stage eight years ago when he walked across a frozen river into North Korea.

Months later, he again made headlines when a former president secured his release from the communist nation.

His death on Friday also drew attention, when an off-duty officer found him engulfed in flames in a dirt field not far from Fiesta Island. He was 38.

Investigators suspect Gomes’ death was either an accident or a suicide, San Diego police said Tuesday.

An off-duty California Highway Patrol officer was driving west on Pacific Highway near Sea World Drive about 11:30 p.m. when he saw Gomes on fire, running then collapsing, homicide Lt. Todd Griffin said.

Gomes had recently moved to the San Diego area from Boston, Griffin said, but it is unclear exactly where he was residing.  [San Diego Union Tribune]

You can read more at the link, but I always thought Gomes had mental issues when he decided to walk across the border to North Korea.  It appears that he did have mental issues according to a family member:

An uncle said Gomes was distant from the family before he left the East Coast. They were not sure why he was in San Diego.

A friend of Gomes posted a statement on Facebook reflecting on the time she spent with him and suggested he had mental health issues.

“I say all of this to say that we should move away from mental health issues being such a stigma in our community. If you need help or your mood isn’t what you feel it should be, don’t be embarrassed to seek help and if you know someone who may be suffering, offer them a kind word as it just may make all the difference. Seeking professional help doesn’t make you strange; it makes you human. Rest In Peace Aijalon!” Marshalette Wise posted.  [Fox5SanDiego]

You can read more at the link, but condolences to his family because this is definitely a horrible way to have to deal with the loss of a loved one.

North Korea Releases Canadian Detainee After Visit By Special Envoy

Amid the latest crisis with North Korea the Canadians were able to send in a special envoy and get a Canadian pastor released this week:

In this image taken from a video, Lim Hyeon-soo, who pastors the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Toronto, is escorted to his sentencing in Pyongyang on Dec. 16, 2015. (AP Photo/APTN-Yonhap)

North Korea said Wednesday that it has released an imprisoned Canadian pastor for humanitarian reasons amid escalating tensions on the Korean peninsular stemming from the North’s continued provocations.

The Korea Central News Agency, the communist state’s official media outlet, reported that Lim Hyeon-su, a Canadian civilian, was released on sick bail in line with the decision of the Central Court of the North.

Lim, a Korean-Canadian pastor, has been held in captivity in the North since he entered the country via China on a humanitarian mission in January 2015.

In December, the North’s highest court sentenced Lim to life in prison with hard labor, citing his “subversive plots” against the North’s regime.

His release came one day after a special envoy of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arrived in the North.

Daniel Jean, national security advisor to the prime minister of Canada, and his party arrived in Pyongyang, the KCNA reported on Tuesday.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Doctors Says Otto Warmbier Has Severe Neurological Injury

Here the latest on the medical status of Otto Warmbier after his release from a North Korean prison:

A man believed to be Otto Warmbier was transferred from an airplane to an ambulance at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati on Tuesday.

An American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea and returned to his home state of Ohio in a coma suffered a “severe neurological injury,” a hospital spokeswoman said Thursday.

Otto Warmbier is in stable condition at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center with his mother by his side, hospital spokeswoman Kelly Martin said. Doctors planned an update later Thursday.

His father, Fred Warmbier, said he does not believe North Korea’s explanation that the coma resulted from botulism and a sleeping pill. He said there was no reason for North Korea to keep his 22-year-old son’s condition a secret and deny him top medical care.

Fred Warmbier called his son’s return bittersweet.

“Relief that Otto is now home in the arms of those who love him and anger that he was so brutally treated for so long,” he said at a news conference at Wyoming High School, where Warmbier graduated in 2013 as class salutatorian and played soccer. Blue-and-white ribbons in the school’s colors were tied around the trees and utility poles all the way along the city’s main road in a show of support.

To honor his son, Fred Warmbier wore the same jacket Otto wore when North Korea presented him before the media in March 2016 at an event where he tearfully confessed that he tried to steal a propaganda banner while visiting the country.

Fred Warmbier said that he doesn’t know why North Korea released his son but that the country doesn’t do anything out of “the kindness of their hearts.” He called on the country to release other Americans currently held there.

“There’s no excuse for the way the North Koreans treated our son,” he said.

Warmbier also accused North Korea of luring Americans to the country with a Chinese tour company making the false promise they will never be detained.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but I don’t buy the botulism claim either considering the North Koreans are saying he went into a coma the day after his sentencing.

That leads me to believe one of two things happened; a guard could have possibly struck him in the head which the New York Times is reporting that US intelligence have reports of him being beaten.   Another possibility is maybe he was so depressed from a 15 year jail sentence and beatings that he had a botched suicide attempt?  Either way the Kim regime is responsible for what happened and should be held accountable for it.

American Detainee Otto Warmbier Released By North Korea for Medical Reasons

Here is another one of those only in North Korea stories:

Otto Warmbier last year in North Korea apologizing for his theft.

University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier has been medically evacuated from North Korea in a coma after being detained for 17 months, his parents told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

Warmbier, 22, is due to arrive home in Cincinnati on Tuesday evening, having been evacuated through a U.S. military base in Sapporo, Japan.

Warmbier has been in a coma for more than a year, since shortly after his last public appearance during his trial in Pyongyang in March 2016.

“Our son is coming home,” Fred Warmbier told The Post on Tuesday morning after Otto Warmbier was evacuated. “At the moment, we’re just treating this like he’s been in an accident. We get to see our son Otto tonight.”  [Washington Post]

You can read much more at the link, but readers my remember Warmer was the guy who visited North Korea and tried to steal a Kim regime propaganda poster off the hotel wall and received a 15 year prison sentence.  The sentencing was obviously completely inappropriate for the crime, but like I have said repeatedly that is the risk that any American going to North Korea takes and why no one should travel there.

With that said I hope Warmbier is able to recover from the botulism he received while in captivity likely from food poisoning.  It is horrible that the Kim regime allowed Warmbier to be in coma for a year before having him released for proper medical treatment.  Additionally the Kim regime is now trying to take media attention away from their treatment of Warmbier by allowing top US diplomat to North Korea Dennis Rodman to visit North Korea at the same time.

Another American Who Traveled to North Korea is Detained

Any American currently in North Korea or planning to travel there in the near term is an absolute fool that I have little sympathy for:

North Korea has detained a U.S. citizen, officials said Sunday, bringing to three the number of Americans now being held there.

Tony Kim, who also goes by his Korean name Kim Sang-duk, was detained on Saturday, according to Park Chan-mo, the chancellor of the Pyongyang University of Science and Technology.

Park said Kim, who is in his 50s, taught accounting at the university for about a month. He said Kim was detained by officials as he was trying to leave the country from Pyongyang’s international airport.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but Tony Kim is reportedly a professor in the Yanbian prefecture of China across the border from China.  What he was doing in North Korea is unclear, but really it doesn’t matter there is no good reason for an American to be in North Korea. All this guy has done besides greatly stressing his family is given the Kim regime a third American detainee bargaining chip to assist them with any future negotiations with the US.

BBC Journalist Detained In North Korea Because Regime Claimed He Wrote North Koreans Bark Like Dogs

The details about why a BBC reporter, Rupert Winfield-Hayes was detained in North Korea have now been revealed.  It seems pretty clear that he was made an example of to warn other international media figures from reporting negatively about the country:

A group of officials in dark Mao suits walked in and sat opposite. The older one spoke first.

“Mr Rupert,” he said, “this meeting can be over quickly and simply, it will depend on your attitude.”

I was told that my reporting had insulted the Korean people, and that I needed to admit my mistakes. They produced copies of three articles that had been published on the BBC website, as I reported on the visit of the Nobel laureates.  (……….)

“Do you think Korean people are ugly?” the older man asked.

“No,” I answered.

“Do you think Korean people have voices like dogs?”

“No,” I answered again.

“Then why do you write these things?!” he shouted.

I was confused. What could they mean? One of the articles was presented to me, the offending passage circled in black marker pen:

“The grim-faced customs officer is wearing one of those slightly ridiculous oversized military caps that they were so fond of in the Soviet Union. It makes the slightly built North Korean in his baggy uniform comically top heavy. “Open,” he grunts, pointing at my mobile phone. I dutifully punch in the passcode. He grabs it back and goes immediately to photos. He scrolls through pictures of my children skiing, Japanese cherry blossom, the Hong Kong skyline. Apparently satisfied he turns to my suitcase. “Books?” he barks. No, no books. “Movies?” No, no movies. I am sent off to another desk where a much less gruff lady is already looking through my laptop.” 

“Are they serious?” I thought. They had taken “grim-faced” to mean “ugly”, and the use of the word “barks” as an indication that I thought they sounded like dogs.

“It doesn’t mean what you think it means.” I protested.

The older man squinted.

“I have studied English literature,” he said. “Do you think I do not understand what these expressions mean?

For two hours they demanded I confess my mistakes. Finally the older man got up to leave.

“It is clear that your attitude is going to make this difficult,” he said. “We have no choice but to carry out a full investigation.”  [BBC]

You can read the rest at the link, but it makes you wonder why journalists even bother going to North Korea when it is pretty clear that what they publish has to be self censored to avoid detainment and future access to North Korea.

North Korea Showcases and Sentences Another American to Prison Time

Here we go again and just like each time one of these idiots gets in trouble in North Korea I continue to have no sympathy for them since they willing entered North Korea and put themselves at risk of detainment:

A man identified by North Korea as an American detainee said Friday he conducted espionage against the Communist nation and appealed for leniency at a state-controlled appearance that marked the first official accounting of his alleged crimes.

The highly scripted display of the prisoner — identified as Kim Dong-chul, a former resident of Fairfax, Va. — is certain to escalate tensions with Washington less than two weeks after North Korea sentenced an American student to 15 years in prison with hard labor for allegedly trying to take a sign as a souvenir during a tour.

There was no immediate comment from U.S. officials. But Washington has previously accused North Korea of taking Americans into custody as political pawns in its showdowns with the West over issues such as Pyongyang’s nuclear program.

In the North Korean capital, news agencies said Kim was brought before reporters and stated that he spied for South Korea’s intelligence agencies, sought to obtain details of the North’s military programs and tried to spread “religious” ideas — a serious crime in the North. [Washington Post]

You can read more at the link.

Ohio College Student Detained For “Hostile Act” in North Korea

What is with this idiots traveling to North Korea?  I feel bad for the family that has to deal with their loved one being detained by the North Koreans, but I do not believe the US government has any obligation to try and get someone released that voluntarily went some where that is notorious for detaining Americans:

Image of Frederick from WCPO News 9.

North Korea announced Friday the arrest of a U.S. university student for what it called a “hostile act” orchestrated by the American government to undermine the authoritarian nation.

In language that mirrors past North Korean claims of outside conspiracies, Pyongyang’s state media said the University of Virginia student entered the country under the guise of a tourist and plotted to destroy North Korean unity with “the tacit connivance of the U.S. government and under its manipulation.”

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said in a short report that the student, whom it identified as Warmbier Otto Frederick, was “arrested while perpetrating a hostile act,” but didn’t say when he was detained or explain the nature of the act. North Korea has sometimes listed English-language surnames first, in the Korean style. The University of Virginia’s online student directory lists someone named Otto Frederick Warmbier as an undergraduate commerce student.

A China-based tour company specializing in travel to North Korea, Young Pioneer Tours, confirmed that one of its customers, identified only as “Otto,” had been detained in Pyongyang, the North’s capital, but provided no other details. Social media accounts for Warmbier show interests in finance, travel and rap music; he was on the University of Virginia’s dean’s list and attended high school in Wyoming City, a suburb of Cincinnati, Ohio.  [Associated Press]

You can read the rest at the link.

North Korea Shows On CNN That They Are Holding Yet Another US Citizen

Once again if you are an American and willingly go into North Korea I believe the US government does not have an obligation to come and rescue you.  I says this every time another American gets detained by the regime, do not go to North Korea.  This guy, Kim Dong-chul claims to be a spy for South Korea, but who knows if anything he says is true considering the treatment he has likely received while detained in North Korea:

Is North Korea holding an American prisoner? That’s what a man CNN spoke to in Pyongyang claims. As tensions on the Korean peninsula continued to rise and Seoul and Washington officials discussed the potential deployment of more troops to South Korea, officials in Pyongyang gave CNN exclusive access to a man North Korea claims is a U.S. citizen arrested on espionage charges. Speaking to CNN’s Will Ripley, the man identified himself as Kim Dong Chul, a naturalized American, who said he used to live in Fairfax, Virginia. “I’m asking the U.S. or South Korean government to rescue me,” Kim said during an interview at a hotel in the North Korean capital.  [CNN]

You can read more at the link.