Did North Korea abduct missing U.S. student David Sneddon?

CNN ^ | September 2, 2016 | KJ Kwon and Ben Westcott

[TigerLikesRooster]

Did North Korea abduct missing U.S. student David Sneddon?

By KJ Kwon and Ben Westcott, CNN

Updated 2223 GMT (0623 HKT) September 2, 2016

(CNN) — If true, it could be one of the most astonishing stories to ever emerge from North Korea.

A media report on Friday repeated claims that a 24-year-old American man was kidnapped in China in 2004 and taken to Pyongyang to work as an English tutor for current leader Kim Jong Un.

However, the US State Department says there is no evidence to confirm reports that missionary David Sneddon was seized while hiking in China's Yunnan province. CNN reached out to the North Korean embassy in Beijing, but our calls went unanswered.

"The embassy in Beijing ... has been in regular, ongoing contact with the local authorities since David Sneddon was reported missing ... We continue to closely monitor this matter and we continue to raise it with Chinese authorities," US State Department Spokesman John Kirby said.

Sneddon went missing near the Tiger Leaping Gorge, just over 12 years ago, and when investigators failed to find any trace of him, Chinese authorities suggested he may have fallen to his death.

[TigerLikesRooster]

This has a potential to become a story which will never die. If he is found in N. Korea, there will be a closure. If not, people could still speculate that he was kidnapped and confined to a secret location only accessible to a precious few N. Korean higher-ups, and they just killed him to cover up his trace when people started to look for him in earnest.

I wouldn't put it past N. Korean regime to kidnap him, but at this point, we really don't know what happened to him.

[TigerLikesRooster]

P!

[Timpanagos1]

It is not uncommon for hikers to fall off of a cliff and if you fall off a cliff in an area that is unpopulated or sparsely populated, you will never be found.

You will be eaten, maybe by animals.

[buwaya]

North Korea has a long history of kidnapping foreigners, especially Japanese. There are many dozens (some say hundreds) of cases of Japanese people being snatched in Japan or abroad and held in North Korea for decades. Also South Koreans and other foreigners.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_Korean_abductions_of_Japanese_citizens

I suspect many if not most were quietly executed when their usefulness was at an end.

[The people have spoken]

Interesting article from two years ago: http://www.outsideonline.com/1923586/did-north-korea-kidnap-american-hiker

[Zarro]

No, we don’t know what happened to him. And I really feel for the parents. But it’s not going to be CNN who will shed any light on it. They are completely untrustworthy. If they had comments on their crappy site, I would point that out to any poor viewers they may still have. Thanks for posting, but I call ‘em as I see ‘em.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“You will be eaten, maybe by animals.”

Or hungry North Koreans.