I disagree. Lots of people visit NK... every year 100's of journalists go for the big annual parade, and others do go for the experience of being immersed in the totally backwards place for a few days. It's definitely an educational type of thing.
Otto was with a group with 10 others for a short visit. Normally, visitors are assigned "minders" who take you around and make sure you see things "correctly" and stay out of trouble.
It's not like going to Syria to join ISIS or something.... this sort of trip is probably safer than going to Chicago for the weekend.
If he had snuck in to try and do minister work or something then yes, that would have been super dangerous... but not coming in via normal "tourist" methods.
He was in the wrong place at the wrong time. For whatever reason, the Norks decided to have an American hostage as a bargaining chip or something.
“Lots of people visit NK...”
“Lots” of people are imbeciles.
It’s a big wonderful world with literally thousands of reasonably safe places to visit. There are however a small number of places that are most definately not.
If one is crazy enough to want to gamble traveling to one of these places they better be prepared to lose....big time.
this sort of trip is probably safer than going to Chicago for the weekend.
Fact, over 54 MILLION tourists visited Chicago last year—how many were detained, tortured, and killed at hand of evil authorites? Why would 54 million people come to Chicago—a place you claim is more dangerous than North Korea? Hmm Perhaps it is because answer is none were detained and tortured. Chicago is a world class city—beautiful lakefront, museums, excellent top tier restaurants, theaters, business district, etc. President Trump thought enough of Chicago to build a beautiful hotel on the river :)
You might be surprised at the cities on the “dangerous cities” list, but according to USA today 10 most dangerous cities 2016, Chicago did not even make the list...
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2016/10/01/most-dangerous-cities-america/91227778/
Nor does Chicago make the Forbes list
https://www.forbes.com/pictures/mlj45jggj/10-buffalo/#36b09a443f39
Like any large city (third largest in US with 2.7 million residents), one has to exercise common sense when visiting...Chicago has a shooting problem— stems from the democrat control of the city...they are mishandling many things. There are some very dangerous areas and very dangerous gangs, but to compare Chicago to North Korea in terms of safety is disingenuous and lacking facts.
I am biased—I am a Chicagoan. I enjoy the city, but not the democrat regime that is controlling it and Illinois. Now if you want to talk trash about Illinois fiscal situation, I will agree that there are major problems!! Frankly, in terms of impacting me, I am more concerned about Illinois fiscal problems than Chicago safety issues.