Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/06/19/the-american-student-detained.html
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We like to think that NK’s delusions are just cynical posturing, to ensure the flow of danegeld into their coffers but stuff like this indicates that maybe the north koreans have drunk their own kool-aid.
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Imperialist Medical System Kills 17-month Guest of DPRK Just Days After Returning to America!
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I don’t know that jokes about this are appropriate.
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Not making a joke because this is truly a sad story but I love the last name - Warmbier = warm + beer.
Godspeed Otto
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That poor kid.
Think of all the North Koreans having similar experiences right this minute.
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When I first read about his arrest, it sounded like the story of a dumb college student who thoughtlessly went on a trip to North Korea where he did typical dumb college boy stuff and it had terrible consequences. But that doesn’t sound like it was the case, at all - there’s no evidence he stole a poster, and the trip to North Korea seems like it was packaged as a tightly controlled, safe experience (and likely would have been, if he had come from any other country). We’ll never know why the state targeted him and killed him, but it was probably just about seeing an opportunity to gain some concessions/ransom from the US. And it’s clear why they released him now - he’s been in a coma long enough to erase evidence of what they did to him, but he was clearly dying and had he died in NK, that would have been a bit of a disaster for them.
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Watch only if you are in a place where it’s OK to cry.
This girl’s story about what she went through in NK and what she went through to escape.
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That doesn’t sound like a coma.
More like one of those “persistent vegetative states.”
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I saw her speak in Seattle (and she signed my book!) — she’s great. And her story is horrific. And so is Otto Warmbier’s. Whether he stole a poster or not.
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Change two details, and it becomes a non-story. Make the kid black, and the authorities who kill him be American police. Poof! All interest in this (constantly repeated) story just evaporates.
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That’s what I thought as well
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Late stage Stalinism.
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When I heard of his condition, I imagined that he might spend many years in a nursing home being kept alive. I hope his family finds some sense of relief that he is at peace now. I wonder what happened to him. To say there’s a lot of injustice in this world is a massive understatement.
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I was in a safe space.
Not seen that before but thanks for bringing it to my attention.
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I just saw it recently and she and her story just blew me away. The world is a better place with her free to speak for herself and for those like Otto Warmbier that no longer have a voice to speak out themselves.
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I’m about as pacifist as they come, and yet I am occasionally shocked that North Korea continues to exist.
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Wow! 
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