North Korea Jails US Citizen to 6 Yrs Hard Labor

[Chef Ramsay]

North Korea's Supreme Court on Sunday sentenced US citizen Matthew Miller to six years' hard labour for "hostile" acts, two weeks after he and two other detained Americans had pleaded for help from Washington.

Miller becomes the second American serving a hard labour prison term in the North amid accusations that Pyongyang is using them to extract political concessions from Washington.

The 24-year-old was arrested in April after he allegedly ripped up his visa at immigration and demanded asylum.

"He committed acts hostile to the (North) while entering the territory of the (North) under the guise of a tourist last April," the state-run KCNA news agency said in announcing Sunday's court ruling.

Pictures published by KCNA showed a sombre-looking Miller, dressed in a black polo neck and black trousers, sitting and standing in the courtroom dock, flanked by two uniformed guards.

A photo of the evidence table showed what appeared to be Miller's ripped-up visa, as well as his US passport, a tablet computer and a smartphone.

More...http://news.yahoo.com/n-korea-sentences-american-six-years-labour-camp-092042291.html;_ylt=AwrTWVVyrxVUnS8A64zQtDMD

Sounds like some progressive retard as only someone like that would be fucked in the head enough to go to the DPRK border to demand asylum. I mean, are you fucking kidding me? Enjoy some real socialism, dickhead.

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[Balthazar]

http://rt.com/news/187672-matthew-miller-sentenced-korea/

There is a lot of trolling in comments

   Lewis John   
+13      
Well, he wanted to stay in NK, they made him stay for six years.. with food, accommodation and a full-time job.
about 8 hours agoReply

       calisse245   
    +1      
    Probably he is better off than most of 50 Million Yanks living from Food Stamps...Plus he gets to learn a foreign language...
    about 3 hours ago

   Joseph    
+13      
He plan to experience prison life, I'm sure he did not plan for 6 years, he got a bonus
about 8 hours agoReply

       traolach b   
    +7      
    lets hope he likes rice
    about 8 hours ago

   Tarantula   
0      
Men after one hour I am still RFLOL ...............Those NK has a lot of humor...I can't stop laughing see that guy sitting in court
about 7 hours ago

[bryant.coleman]

American citizen requesting asylum in North Korea is like Binyamin Netanyahu going to the Gaza Strip and demanding housing for himself from the Hamas militants. I don't think he will survive the labor camp... as normal people won't stay alive for more than a few months there.... Well.. if he is lucky.. then the Americans will do a prisoner exchange...

[awesome31312]

Lol, seeking asylum in North Korea? He was better off in Somalia

[TECSHARE]

This story doesn't sound plausible to me.

[wasserman99]

This story doesn't sound plausible to me.

North Korea does some very strange things. Their legal system is not at all fair, and revolves around protecting the reputation of Kim Jung Lee. It is not uncommon to have very vague charges brought against you and then be found guilty after the court hears very vague evidence. It is very difference from the rest of the world

[TECSHARE]

This story doesn't sound plausible to me.

North Korea does some very strange things. Their legal system is not at all fair, and revolves around protecting the reputation of Kim Jung Lee. It is not uncommon to have very vague charges brought against you and then be found guilty after the court hears very vague evidence. It is very difference from the rest of the world

I understand this. I am just saying it sounds like an excuse they made up to imprison an American. Fits right in with the pretext that North Korea is the best Korea and it is so great he refused to leave.

[Honeypot]

Was he a liberal fool who thought his good will could change the world?

Visit the danger spots, volunteer at the poor centers of the world, and grace the pitiable with their god like presence?

Go hiking along hostile borders, ride bikes through crime infested areas in conspicuous get up, etc etc

If this kid was one of the above, he better understand what he did before our government bails him out.

[DrG]

Quick, someone summon the Bill, I mean Clinton.  You know he can't handle being out of the spotlight for more than a week and any press is good for Hillary 2016.

[Pente]

6 Years hard labor. Sounds fair. Great learning experience for this kid.

Major lessons to be learned:

• Actions have consequences
• Communism sucks
• Prison sucks
• North Korea sucks
• Korean

This will help straighten out some of his flawed thinking. From his picture, I bet he is a virgin. Between being toughened up a bit and the free korean lessons, he will find it much easier to get laid after he gets out.

I just don't get him asking for help from the USA after asking for asylum. Sounds a bit hypocritical to me. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. He may have been tortured and asked under duress.

[awesome31312]

6 Years hard labor. Sounds fair. Great learning experience for this kid.

Major lessons to be learned:

• Actions have consequences
• Communism sucks
• Prison sucks
• North Korea sucks
• Korean

This will help straighten out some of his flawed thinking. From his picture, I bet he is a virgin. Between being toughened up a bit and the free korean lessons, he will find it much easier to get laid after he gets out.

I just don't get him asking for help from the USA after asking for asylum. Sounds a bit hypocritical to me. But I will give him the benefit of the doubt on that one. He may have been tortured and asked under duress.

You are really sick

[redskins49]

6 Years hard labor. Sounds fair. Great learning experience for this kid.

Major lessons to be learned:

• Actions have consequences

Here is the thing. It has really not been proven that this kid actually did anything wrong. The NK legal system is a joke and the government often brings very vague charges against people and does not give a fair trial.

[Kluge]

I'm tempted to see this as just. What a pain in the ass for their government, but OTOH, their laws led to it. It's simply illegal immigration where the immigrant decided to come right out and claim asylum. I can't imagine any government would tolerate that, though they'd probably deport the immigrant rather than imprisoning for six years.

Not really sure the immigrant should've expected a bad reaction from NKorean gov't, though. They're known for being nutty as Hell -- he probably saw a couple VICE documentaries and assumed any Westerner willing to submit to the NKorean government would be treated like a god and used for propaganda, similar to certain extraordinary stories about embedded journalists elsewhere. Can't trust the media or gov't reports, though, esp. anything relating to NKorea... everyone's been testing the boundaries with NATO, lately... maybe he's eating their finest dog and deflowering 5 virgins as we speak and NKoreans are just trolling us again. -Or they're genuinely offended, or something... who the Hell knows with them.

[RobertDJ]

I'm tempted to see this as just. What a pain in the ass for their government, but OTOH, their laws led to it. It's simply illegal immigration where the immigrant decided to come right out and claim asylum. I can't imagine any government would tolerate that, though they'd probably deport the immigrant rather than imprisoning for six years.

Not really sure the immigrant should've expected a bad reaction from NKorean gov't, though. They're known for being nutty as Hell -- he probably saw a couple VICE documentaries and assumed any Westerner willing to submit to the NKorean government would be treated like a god and used for propaganda, similar to certain extraordinary stories about embedded journalists elsewhere. Can't trust the media or gov't reports, though, esp. anything relating to NKorea... everyone's been testing the boundaries with NATO, lately... maybe he's eating their finest dog and deflowering 5 virgins as we speak and NKoreans are just trolling us again. -Or they're genuinely offended, or something... who the Hell knows with them.

I would somewhat doubt this. NK tends to install fear in their citizens to try to keep them from rebelling. The people of NK are treated remarkably equal (even though it is very bad), and I think this is to prevent people from getting upset about being treated differently and trying to overthrow the government.

[Balthazar]

NK tends to install fear in their citizens to try to keep them from rebelling.

No need because NK is not a civil society. Neither capitalist nor socialist. It's just one very big military base, the most of active people are serving in armed forces because period of military service is 10-15 years and there is no difference for male or female citizens. Consequently their own civil laws do not apply to them during the period of service, because military personnel is treated according to Law on Military Duty.

[awesome31312]

NK tends to install fear in their citizens to try to keep them from rebelling.

No need because NK is not a civil society. Neither capitalist nor socialist. It's just one very big military base, the most of active people are serving in armed forces because period of military service is 10-15 years and there is no difference for male or female citizens. Consequently their own civil laws do not apply to them during the period of service, because military personnel is treated according to Law on Military Duty.

It's an example of a militarized fascist state

[niothor]

This story doesn't sound plausible to me.

North Korea does some very strange things. Their legal system is not at all fair, and revolves around protecting the reputation of Kim Jung Lee. It is not uncommon to have very vague charges brought against you and then be found guilty after the court hears very vague evidence. It is very difference from the rest of the world

I understand this. I am just saying it sounds like an excuse they made up to imprison an American. Fits right in with the pretext that North Korea is the best Korea and it is so great he refused to leave.

There are lots of idiots who believe that the press is painting NK in an enemy and that life is indeed beautiful in that concentration camp.
Unfortunately I know a guy that believes this.

So , it is highly possible that some idiots went there to catch a glimpse of the miracles of communism and dictatorship.

[Chef Ramsay]

I've long said that the radical progressives here in the US should have to spend 6 months in the DPRK and really see how life is like before they're allowed to flip the tables and continue to advocate for bringing more of that insanity back here. Certain elements of Occupy Wall street and many of the dirtball commies that had a blast hanging out and protesting in the streets here for their ideal version of socialist life would get thrown in the gulags over in DPRK and get minimal food while working 16 hour days in hell.

[niothor]

I've long said that the radical progressives here in the US should have to spend 6 months in the DPRK and really see how life is like before they're allowed to flip the tables and continue to advocate for bringing more of that insanity back here. Certain elements of Occupy Wall street and many of the dirtball commies that had a blast hanging out and protesting in the streets here for their ideal version of socialist life would get thrown in the gulags over in DPRK and get minimal food while working 16 hour days in hell.

It's the same with all Russian supporters in the Ukrainian mess.
Most of them haven't been even once to Russia , don't speak russian but they think rusia is the greatest country just because it is against the US.

Two months in a communist country and every westerner will cry to get back in the "bankrupt" EU or US.

[Kluge]

I've long said that the radical progressives here in the US should have to spend 6 months in the DPRK and really see how life is like before they're allowed to flip the tables and continue to advocate for bringing more of that insanity back here. Certain elements of Occupy Wall street and many of the dirtball commies that had a blast hanging out and protesting in the streets here for their ideal version of socialist life would get thrown in the gulags over in DPRK and get minimal food while working 16 hour days in hell.

It's the same with all Russian supporters in the Ukrainian mess.
Most of them haven't been even once to Russia , don't speak russian but they think rusia is the greatest country just because it is against the US.

Two months in a communist country and every westerner will cry to get back in the "bankrupt" EU or US.

Our population accepts the enemy of enemy is friend doctrine unequivocally, and I'd guess this is the greatest factor in every part of our politics, too. Look at Obama, there's a picture of him with a hateful preacher. Look at Ron Paul, there's a picture of him with a racist leader. No time for nuanced views, which I'm tempted to think is valid. We read history books in school, then maybe fluffy news reports - Russia maybe has a paragraph about its acts in high school textbooks' chapter on WW2... Cold War still isn't really covered outside dates -- very sterilized. Nothing to form an opinion on anything related to Russia one way or the other, except our books make them out to be incompetent while Ronald Reagan may's well have been some kind of laser-shooting pterodactyl in space, backed by the wrath of our Almighty Lord. It's extremely difficult to intimately understand a place, people, or government without being fully involved with them, and that isn't even something we attempt to do, here, and maybe it's like this in many places or not - I wouldn't know. This makes being an adequately informed US citizen almost impossible. Our government becomes involved in acts of war with new groups of people faster than we could possibly understand what's in play, so soldiers go over completely lost except for what they're told to do, unless they learn too much, but the government's grown wise to this and insists on providing as many luxury distractions as possible. Idunno - it seems like playing Battlefield 9000 or whatever would trigger some moment where someone has a sudden realization... maybe you suddenly notice you feel a little more fire playing the NATO/EU/US team than when shooting Americans. Spec Ops: The Line was a fascinating and controversial game in the US... it would be interesting to send over in care packages, though maybe we could make even more succinct narratives - or maybe it's just taken as a game where you shoot people and avoid being shot.

Who am I shooting? Why am I shooting them? Why can't these people conduct commerce unmolested? Am I here to stop capitalism and democracy? Why do these people act like this? Don't they understand I'm trying to help - that they're backwards - repressed - and their lost relatives are a necessary evil for the greater good? Does the person who orders me understand the implications of what he's doing? You're to go over without adequate information, to do great things, but it takes a long time to decide whether you did a great good or great evil... but it's almost necessarily after the fact.

There's not much to do but rely on those in power, which is impossible for skeptics, but no single person could truly understand every person and group's motivations everywhere, so.... We can understand Canada and Mexico, maybe a few countries in Central or South America, and maybe an important country in the Caribbean - but it's irresponsible to have Americans doing anything anywhere else outside free commerce, certainly not acts of war and espionage. We don't *know* North Korea, ISIS, Russia, or other countries -- most of us only barely understand Cuba -- some type of weird, freedom-hating, backwards people on an island where they drive cars from the first half of the 20th century and make cigars (with rather strict unspoken rules on cigar-smoking, and I have made a habit of white-labeling all my cigars as soon as I get my hands on any) while refusing to come out of a lesser past. Funding all these different militias and providing weapons to governments few Americans could even pronounce and almost certainly haven't heard of is insane. -So then we get to this point where nobody's allowed to judge the people of a country, where a country can be at total war, with the head of state at high approval ratings, but we accept that actual individuals are generally ignorant and not responsible for what their government does, even if they voted for it... it's just all so disconnected, confusing, and impersonal. *shrug* I don't even know what I'm rambling about anymore, though.