Otto Warmbier
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2025
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Some observers say this is an easy way for Pyongyang to earn money. While foreign tourists are allowed in, tour groups largely tend to come from China and Russia, countries with whom Pyongyang has long maintained friendly relations.
Can you imagine being this disconnected on the world perception about yourself and how you run your country? Crazy.
Kim was educated in Europe, not like he's clueless about the outside world. Also, there's such a thing as "poverty tourism". (I forget the word.)
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When does construction of a Trump Tower there begin?
Hope there aren't any flags or posters that can murder a poor tourist.
Anyone who goes there of their own free will should know that they could end up like Otto Warmbier at any time. No tears will be shed for them.
They are likely betting on Chinese/Russian tourists. No way Kim lays a finger on a PRC citizen.
Also it's curated to prevent them from seeing, the actual country side. It's with minders
Wonder if they'd expect Southern "occupied" Koreans go?
You are talking about a fellow human being...
Yes, which is why it's important for them to realize what they're getting themselves into. Did Warmbier deserve what happened to him? Absolutely not, but knowing what happened and still going over there to play tourist means you've understood, accepted and internalized the possible risk. I will reserve my tears for the many thousands of people who get into trouble through no fault of their own.
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Interestingly, I've recently watched Real Life Lore's video on the topic. It's from 2 months ago and later in the video, it talks about the last batch of western foreigners that got in and how the regime almost immediately regretted letting them record and talk as much as they did.
There was also a S. Korean resort ran by Hyundai, from 1998 to 2008, which got shut down and nationalized after an incident had the N. Koreans shoot and kill Park Wang-ja, a 53 year old woman.
NK is a bad enough place to visit without worrying about everything. It’s the ultimate in mismanagement.
Management says it must happen, so it happens, or we tell them it’s happened. When someone gets hurt because it actually didn’t happen, there’s a cover up.
Does anyone even go to North Korea? Is that like a thing?
They do have a tourism industry, composed of ideological "true believers" (not that big of a group), tourists wanting to experience the unique culture out of curiosity (or - in the more recent years - also to produce social media content), and tourists interested in the unique architecture.
In the overwhelming amount of cases, it also goes well enough, because it is a welcome avenue to get foreign currency for them, and despite what some may believe, the state is still fully within the dynamics of capital accumulation. (Other examples are: contractors in construction, where they have unique know-how in monumental constructions, which is also one of the places where the exploitation of their populace as wage labourers can become visible to the outside world - and selling stamps and other collectibles in demand for being "exotic" as they are from NK.)
But then, every now and again, you have cases like Otto Warmbier.
A few people have, but it's not common. https://abcnews.go.com/International/prominent-americans-met-north-korean-leaders/story?id=53635089
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Plot to a horror movie.
"Cut my life into pieces..."
"This is my beach resort"
Fascism
No voting
Don't care if they destroy the country they're living.
The middle east oil state meta claims another.
Everything going on in the US right now makes me want to go there to get Warmbier'd