Kenneth Bae

[O Really]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2014 ... envoy?lite

Bae gets sentenced to 15 years "hard labor." I doubt he did much if anything really wrong or - in a real country - illegal. But it's not like North Korea is held in high regard among world travelers that aren't former freaky NBA players. What was the man thinking that taking tours to North Korea was a good idea? This is a country run by certified loons that kill off their own family members. Isn't visiting there a lot like saying "here Honey - hold my beer while I go get my hat back from that there 'gator"? Or "Hey, Honey, why don't we go fishing off the coast of Somalia?"

[homerfobe]

What was the man thinking that taking tours to North Korea was a good idea? This is a country run by certified loons that kill off their own family members. Isn't visiting there a lot like saying "here Honey - hold my beer while I go get my hat back from that there 'gator"? Or "Hey, Honey, why don't we go fishing off the coast of Somalia?"

I can't identify with his zeal or drive, but it's obvious that he was doing something that you have no clue about. While your concerns are with the proliferation of deviant and disgusting behavior under the guise of human rights, his concerns are with those who have no rights at all and are denied any basic knowledge of liberty to worship if they wish. Since NK frowns on religion of any sort, that is an act against the government. Any worshipping to be done is to be directed at that stupid little bastard with the soup bowl haircut.

[O Really]

He's an idiot if he didn't know the risks, or
He's admirable if he expected to get busted and went anyhow as an act of martyr-like conscience.

I don't think self-destructive behaviour with no chance of making a difference is admirable, and I doubt his family does, either. Not that I know anything about what he really did, if anything. But he didn't need to be captured for the world to think North Korea is a ward for the criminally insane, led by a really vicious
dictator. It's not even like they have a real judicial system.

[O Really]

Maybe the arrest was a complete surprise, whether that was foolish of him or not. I don't know.

If I was expecting to get arrested in a place like that you can bet that my "hostile acts against the republic" would be really, really hostile ones. Might as well do the crime if you're gonna do the time.

'zactly.

[Mr.B]

Does NK really believe that one man preaching the Gospel of Christ is out to, or is really capable of, attempting to bring down the NK government?

That's just the paranoia of a power-mad idiot; proof being in the fact that he is readily willing to execute his own family to retain his grip.

[O Really]

Does NK really believe that one man preaching the Gospel of Christ is out to, or is really capable of, attempting to bring down the NK government?

That's just the paranoia of a power-mad idiot; proof being in the fact that he is readily willing to execute his own family to retain his grip.

Well, I dunno, Mr.B - is that what he was doing in North Korea - preaching? Not to dispute that Kim Jong-un is a paranoid power-mad idiot, but we know that, don't we? So it might depend on whether Bae was drawing a crowd, and whether it looked like he was having an effect on those to whom he spoke. Kim Jong-un is undoubted aware of real instances where a person with great oratorical skills has led to uprising and overturn. I'm just saying that sometimes people expect a level of freedom and freedom of speech comparable to the US in places where that just doesn't exist.