
Young Pioneer Tours is the self-proclaimed “budget North Korea tour operator.” This company released a statement Friday verifying the reports of a U.S. citizen “being detained in Pyongyang.” Perhaps this is part of the “off the beaten track” experience the tour company advertises.
The detainee, Otto Warmbier, is a third-year student at the University of Virginia. According to CNN, “Warmbier’s family has been informed and is working with the U.S. State Department, the North Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Swedish Embassy” to free Warmbier. North Korea reported, according to CNN, that he entered the country “for the purpose of bringing down the foundation of its single-minded unity at the tacit connivance of the U.S. government.”
Back home in the United States, we can’t help but ponder the real reason why a well-informed, highly intelligent and privileged university student would choose to visit a country that uses punishment, according to a United Nations inquiry, that includes “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence.”
Due to privacy concerns, we may never really be able to answer this. All we know is that Warmbier had a strong case of wanderlust — but is that an excuse to travel to a place to which the U.S. Department of State “strongly recommends against all travel?”
Warmbier joins the ranks of other Americans to be detained in North Korea — he even has his own Wikipedia page. Prior detainees include Matthew Miller, who is now the second-youngest detainee behind Warmbier and Kenneth Bae, who was arrested and released with Miller. After walking free in November 2014, Miller told the website NK News he wanted a “face-to-face with North Koreans to answer [his] personal questions.”
The media was captivated by his case. NK News titled its story on him, “Matthew Miller’s excellent adventure in North Korea.” The piece even starts off by disclosing the fact that Miller flew back to America “on the personal airplane of America’s top spy.”
To confuse fascination with glorification in the media is extremely dangerous. Perhaps Miller’s portrayal in the news as a brave and curious young explorer is what sparked Warmbier’s interest to travel to North Korea. This potential interest not only put his life up in the air, but also cost the United States millions of dollars and numerous foreign-affair headaches.
Most recently, The New York Times was able to speak with other members of Warmbier’s tour group, as evidenced by a Saturday article, who described him as a “normal college kid looking to see the world.” But is a desire to enter a country the United States has no stable diplomatic relations with and that has historically treated Americans with hostility the new normal?
The term privilege is an understatement here. The notion that college students should flex their entitlement in every corner of the world is wrong and dangerous. To Warmbier: We hope you return home safe.
To any other student looking to enter into North Korea: Don’t do it.