Lynnwood man detained in North Korea
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LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- A Lynnwood man has been detained in North Korea for more than a month now, according to U.S. officials.
The U.S. government does not believe Kenneth Bae is being mistreated. Bae, of Lynnwood, has traveled to North Korea several times before. But there are concerns he may have been involved in missionary work, which may have led to his arrest.
According to South Korean newspapers, Bae, a Korean-American tour operator, entered North Korea with five other tourists. One of the tour members was allegedly carrying a computer hard disk "that apparently contained sensitive information."
The State Department is saying very little about the case. The department released the following statement: "We're obviously aware of these reports that a U.S. citizen has been detained in North Korea. We obviously have no higher priority than the welfare of our citizens."
The Swedish government, which acts as the protecting power for the U.S. in North Korea, is working to get him released.
State Rep. Cindy Ryu was born in South Korea, and has family in North Korea.
"It is a pretty dire situation as far as human rights go," she said.
In Bae's case, Ryu says staying quiet may be the best thing for his safe return
"Typically they have to be quiet, if nothing else to save face for both American and Korean politicians," Ryu said.
Bae's family declined to comment.
The U.S. government does not believe Kenneth Bae is being mistreated. Bae, of Lynnwood, has traveled to North Korea several times before. But there are concerns he may have been involved in missionary work, which may have led to his arrest.
According to South Korean newspapers, Bae, a Korean-American tour operator, entered North Korea with five other tourists. One of the tour members was allegedly carrying a computer hard disk "that apparently contained sensitive information."
The State Department is saying very little about the case. The department released the following statement: "We're obviously aware of these reports that a U.S. citizen has been detained in North Korea. We obviously have no higher priority than the welfare of our citizens."
The Swedish government, which acts as the protecting power for the U.S. in North Korea, is working to get him released.
State Rep. Cindy Ryu was born in South Korea, and has family in North Korea.
"It is a pretty dire situation as far as human rights go," she said.
In Bae's case, Ryu says staying quiet may be the best thing for his safe return
"Typically they have to be quiet, if nothing else to save face for both American and Korean politicians," Ryu said.
Bae's family declined to comment.
Kind of an idiot to be a US citizen while entering North Korea.
Simple solution to the idiots like this guy: Track all costs and make them choose: they stay there or they pay all costs of getting them out. They did this by their own choosing and not as representatives of this country. They therefore do not deserve to be bailed out when they make stupid mistakes any more than the idiot who gets caught with drugs does. Let him rot.
 @Oversight My God, that is all I can say
I can see the difficulty that some Korean families feel with and about North Korea. When I was a young soldier in Germany back in the 80's, I knew an old couple who came from Leipzig which was then in the Communist DDR. They still had family on the other side of the Iron Curtain and their familial roots were right there, separated by ideologies [and several Soviet Army Groups].
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Nevertheless, if there is a more militarized and paranoid society on Earth than North Korea, I am unaware of it. It is, for example, illegal to possess a shortwave radio or any other electronic device that can receive news from any source other than official NK propaganda sources. Cell phones outside the hands of Party officials or the military are unheard of. The governmental policies have led to such an outbreak of famine that NK civilians are trying to illegally immigrate into China for crying out loud.
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So while I can understand some of the attraction, I also think that being tourist in North Korea is tantamount to wearing a sign that says 'Preconstructed Diplomatic Incident' on your back. Didn't these people learn *anything* from those idiot 'students' who got captured by Iran two years ago??
 @svensson "Nevertheless, if there is a more militarized and paranoid society on Earth than North Korea, I am unaware of it"
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svensson, meet the USA, USA meet svensson. Phones tapped, facial recognition cameras in public, emails intercepted, pat down body searches before flight, phone companies unlawfully providing all records, border check points and searches 60-100 miles from any border, 290 new departments of security looking at you since 9-11, facebook, The Pres can unilaterally decide to assassinate you without probable cause, trial, charges, and all in secret, etc,etc,etc. Go make an appointment to move 100k from one bank to another and find out how fast they dont want to give you your money til you tell them what you are doing with your money. After you tell them its none of their damned business they will tell you that the government makes them provide that info on that withdrawal. Tell them to tell the gov its none of their damned business. Then they they tell ya despite your appointment to withdraw that sum, they dont happen to have that sum in the vault (BS). It is N Korea here! Beacon of Freedom and Democracy, my ass.
@T_BONE_WALKER Most of what you're complaining about, TBone, are provisions of the Patriot Act and successive legislation.
I don't agree with it any more than you do, and you can blame both parties for the feelings of anger and alienation you feel over it. While the Republicans crafted that singular intrusion into our rights, both parties have had multiple opportunities to lessen or repeal it and have failed to do so.
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And yet we are wishy-washy on how we feel about it... people who own property on the both borders yell and scream about the damage the 4WD vehicles do to their property and in the same breath say they're not being protected enough! People who scream that their library cards can be supoena'd [sp?] also want to regulate gun sales.
Insofar as your money goes, all the more excuse to put it in an account in the Cayman Islands [the Swiss have become very cooperative with governments since the whole Nazi-looter-accounts thing a decade ago].
Look, we as a society have changed since 9/11, but that attack didn't erode our rights any more than British citizens' rights are because of the IRA or Israeli citizens' rights are because of the PLO, Fatah, or Hamas. I submit to you that in those cases the democracies in question were under far greater threat.
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Beyond that, I submit that we allow for greater political dissent here than in any other country in the world. Hell, we impeached our President [Slick Billy Clinton] and no tanks rolled into the streets, no news censorship, etc, etc, etc.
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If you really, really want change in DC, you have to do two things: a] make it illegal for legislative or executive staffers to get a job with PACs, advocacy groups, lobbying firms etc and b] get involved in the political process in the party of your choice. One of the reasons why we have the gridlock we do right now is because both parties have let the idealogues [that is the 'progressives' on the left and the 'religious right'] to take over the parties. We, the People, must elect moderate candidates into office that care more about the nation's welfare and getting the people's business done than they do about what the Party National Committee thinks. And until we all do that, we remain sheeple being herded about by our corporate masters.
Stay out of North Korea! Is that so hard?
The term "human rights" and North Korea are like gasoline and fire. When the two meet, someone gets burned.
If he is showing tourists around, kinda makes you wonder what those other tour destination ideas were like. Their other choices must've been Kabul, Iraq, or Hell. Otherwise why would you go? And from looking at the picture, doesn't that almost look like the walking hammers from The Wall?
 @Zoso ....in a quasi surreal way, yes it does.
"The Swedish government, which acts as the protecting power for the U.S. in North Korea"
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Not sure what that means.
@virtual anomaly The US has no diplomatic ties to the PRK. It doesn't maintain an embassy or a counsulate. In the rare event that a US citizen has issues inside the country, the Kingdom of Sweden handles the diplomatic chair-polishing. The country is rather like the Swiss in it that regard.
 @virtual anomaly Since the U.S. has no "formal" relations with North Korea, we rely on Sweden (who does have some "formal" relations) to act on our citizens behalf.  Kind of a neutral 3rd party sort of thing.
Hey! Where's that stern reprimand that will prevent NK from developing ICBM's with nukes?
Ya know - if one chooses to willingly place themselves in this type of situation in the first place, all I can pretty much say is "too damn bad". What a foolish thing to do.
@Throbbinhood Kinda like those 'students' who where 'on a hiking vacation' in Iraq and got nabbed by the Iranians inside their borders a couple years ago, eh?
You got that right...
In a related story, several people in Lynnwood are believed to be being mistreated as I write this...
 @Citizen#3457899654 Just having to live in Lynnwood is mistreatment in my opinion.