[anarchist23]

University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, who spent 17 long months in detention in North Korea, is finally coming home — in a coma.

North Korea sentenced Warmbier in March 2016 to 15 years in prisonwith hard labor for “hostile acts against the state” after he apparently tried to remove a political propaganda sign inside a hotel in Pyongyang. His family in Cincinnati recently was told after his trial that the 22-year-old contracted botulism and was given a sleeping pill. He never woke up, North Korean officials told American envoys.

But it’s unclear what exactly happened to Warmbier and what his medical condition will be when he arrives in the United States.

Whether the student actually had botulism — a rare and serious disease not typically associated with loss of consciousness — remains unconfirmed. And how a sleeping aid could have triggered a coma is also questionable. What experts can say definitively is that the prognosis is grim for someone who has been comatose for such a lengthy period.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/to- ... 9b0e49e205

[Ter]

The explanation with the sleeping pill resulting in coma is plausible.
One of my acquaintances took a sleeping pill, got an anaphylactic reaction from it, could not breathe and had severe brain damage. He was in a coma for 18 months before they switched off the ventilator.

[ThirdTerm]

Botulism is a potent neurotoxin produced by the bacterium, Clostridium botulinum.

It causes the nerves not to function properly and basically, leads to paralysis in some muscles, according to Orlando Health physician Jamin Brahmbhatt.

It's typically associated with foods that were not properly processed or stored.

"Botulism ... can lead to relaxation of all the muscles in your body and the muscles that are around your lungs, which can cause trouble breathing, and that’s when you get into major trouble," he said.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nat ... 395354001/

Botulism is named as the disease the American student contracted in North Korea. The cause is likely to be bad Korean foods that he had to be fed with in a prison camp. In 2007, 8 people contracted botulism poisoning by eating canned food products produced by a Georgia plant. In Korea, kimchi contaminated by bacteria is the main reason for food poisoning cases.

[Decky]

It is a shame some people feel unable to be good guests when they visit someone else's country (I doubt it is a coincidence that he is an American). Anyway the time for blame is over he has served his time in the labour camp and gave back to the community. I hope the young lad had learned his lesson about defacing the property of the Korean people and can look forwards to a new life as a reformed character courtesy of the Korean worker's party.

[SolarCross]

The explanation with the sleeping pill resulting in coma is plausible.
One of my acquaintances took a sleeping pill, got an anaphylactic reaction from it, could not breathe and had severe brain damage. He was in a coma for 18 months before they switched off the ventilator.

Although that still leaves the question as to what kind of quack doctor prescribes sleeping pills to someone suffering from botulism.

The take away message for me is:

If you go to the DPRK don't eat the food and stay away from their "doctors", either are basically lethal.

[Ter]

If you go to the DPRK don't eat the food and stay away from their "doctors", either are basically lethal.

Mr Warmbier had no choice what to eat or which medicines to take because he was a prisoner.
I would visit North Korea only if invited by their government; I am sure they will give me excellent luxury foods and pretty young women to entertain me.
Anyone visiting as a tourist should do so at their own risk.

[Saeko]

Although that still leaves the question as to what kind of quack doctor prescribes sleeping pills to someone suffering from botulism.

The take away message for me is:

If you go to the DPRK don't eat the food and stay away from their "doctors", either are basically lethal.

Going to the DPRK requires a lethal dose of stupidity to begin with.

[Finfinder]

Mr Warmbier had no choice what to eat or which medicines to take because he was a prisoner.
I would visit North Korea only if invited by their government; I am sure they will give me excellent luxury foods and pretty young women to entertain me.
Anyone visiting as a tourist should do so at their own risk.

Or they just beat the shit out of the guy. I can't find any news or updates on his condition, other than he has been in a coma for over a year.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

Judging from who the DPRK decides to detain or imprison, going there as a tourist doesn't really involve much danger as long as you follow four simple rules:

1. Show respect for the country, its leaders, its politics.
2. Don't leave behind Bibles, don't engage people on religion, don't try to play secret missionary.
3. Don't be someone who served in the Korean War, or have been stationed in South Korea, and probably Asia as a whole to be the safe side; don't be a former or current US serviceman/servicewoman.
4. Don't be a journalist, and don't take photos/video of things you aren't supposed to.

The people who are detained and imprisoned are virtually always people who have done stupid things: people who try to play missionary games, people who steal things as souvenirs, people who run their mouths off about North Korean politics in the middle of North Korea ( ). Within the last year or two, an American Korean War veteran went to North Korea and announced that fact wherever he went. It was literally no surprise that he was detained and forced to dictate a confession about being an imperialist war lackey before being released.

If you show respect to your handlers, to the people you meet, and shut your fucking mouth, going to North Korea is not a problem.

Going to the DPRK requires a lethal dose of stupidity to begin with.

I am surprised with you, comrade. Don't you want to go somewhere where the people truly love their leaders? Don't you want to see the tears in their eyes as they express their devotion and love for the Party and for the Leader? Don't you want to hear people tell you about how they plan to crush their enemies, smash them into pieces, and deliver death? Don't you want to visit a city where people's radio sets have volume knobs that can't be completely turned off? And where there's rationing everywhere because everyone knows that the war effort (the war that has never actually ended, reminded by constant air raid drills and the fear of bombs falling) takes precedence?

Saeko, Saeko, Saeko...

[SolarCross]

Somehow a thread on the DPRK wouldn't be complete without a video of a bunch of NK killbots marching around to the music of Hell's March, sooo...

bonus points for dialing the volume up to 11 and moshing out with the air guitar like the decadent western pig-dogs that you all are.

Also I am a bit disappointed in Comrade Saeko's apparent lack of praise for the one people's regime in history to have perfected totalitarianism.

[ThirdTerm]

Doctors caring for released North Korea detainee Otto Warmbier said he has not spoken or moved on his own since he arrived in the United States on Tuesday, a condition they described as "unresponsive wakefulness" or persistent vegetative state.

The 22-year-old has suffered extensive loss of brain tissue in all regions of the brain, doctors at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center said in a news conference Thursday.

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/06/15/polit ... index.html

The American student was likely to have been tortured and had a cardiac arrest, which resulted in the death of brain tissues as he could not receive medical treatment for a prolonged time. Doctors say there is no sign of botulism as it has been claimed by North Korea. Korea has a long history of torture and the Korean are probably the most cruel people on earth.

Ahn and Kwon reported about the following torture methods used in Haengyong-ri:[19][30]

Water torture: The prisoner must stand on his or her toes in a tank filled with water to his nose for 24 hours.[1]:275
Hanging torture: The prisoner is stripped and hung upside down from the ceiling to be violently beaten.[1]:274
Box-room-torture: The prisoner is detained in a very small solitary cell, in which there is barely enough room to sit, but not stand or lie, for three days or a week.[1]:275
Kneeling-torture: The prisoner must kneel down with a wooden bar inserted near his or her knee hollows to stop blood circulation. After a week, the prisoner cannot walk and may likely die some months later.[19]
Pigeon torture: The prisoner is tied to the wall with both hands at a height of 60 cm (2.0 ft) and must crouch for many hours.[1]:273

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoeryong_ ... ation_camp

[Negotiator]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... rea-prison

WHOW. This is a massive diplomatic failure of the North Koreans. Not that I would expect these people would give a frak.

Seriously, 15 months of hard labour for a simple theft ? Yikes. AND you get brutally tortured for free on top of that ? Unbelievable.

And just realize that north koreans themselves receive such penalties without any international attention whatsoever.

I have no clue why anyone would want to visit North Korea as a "tourist" in the first place, though. I wouldnt "visit" there, ever.

Wait...this guy's name is "Warmbier", seriously?

Thats a deeply disturbing comment. A human being got brutally murdered and you make fun of the victims name ? Yikes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoeryong_ ... ation_camp

OMG I didnt knew about that. And thats apparently just one of many camps there. I'm lost for words.

[mikema63]

And just realize that north koreans themselves receive such penalties without any international attention whatsoever.

Everyone knows about it, and the west has frequently tried diplomacy with repeated and inevitable failure.

Western governments don't push it for fear of people starting to want war, which would be a bloody terrible thing. They have nukes now and tons of conventional artillery to attack Seoul.

The west would win, but at what cost? And then what in the aftermath? We have an occupied territory filled with brainwashed starving peasants.

We shouldn't even consider it as anything but an absolute last resort and with the backing and help of China in the north to end it as quickly as possible.

[Negotiator]

I was well aware that North Korea is hell on earth, with famines and extreme suppression, but I had not heard of these camps before.

[Decky]

I wouldn't mind going to North Korea but it is mad expensive even for just 5 or 6 days.

[SpecialOlympian]

I would love to go to North Korea, I did a lot of reading on it some years back because I find the country fascinating. But I never would since those tours pump money directly into the regime's pockets.

That said as much as I distrust the NK government, all of the travelogues I read from people who have taken tours say it's very safe providing you follow their rules. It's a moneymaker for the regime and they constantly try to up-sell you on premium tickets to scheduled tour events or souvenirs and such. In fact this seems to be one of the major duties of the handlers that are assigned to each group and the authors of the accounts I've read believed the handlers had sales quotas to make. I don't believe the fact that Warmbier was a random AMERICAN wouldn't have been enough to get him arrested on his own.

Ironically he probably could have bought whatever propaganda poster he was trying to steal for like $50. You can buy them online from an Italian reseller who gets them mostly direct from NK but I'm sure if he'd pointed at one and asked for a copy they would have figured something out.

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

http://www.koreanposters.com/posters/ga ... ans-funny/



"The Game of Beating to Death Americans is Very Funny"

[SpecialOlympian]

I don't know why they put a decapitated head on one of those shoe wiping bristle pads you find next to the ball washers on nice golf courses.

[MistyTiger]

Y'all who want to go to NK are a bit...silly.

The punishment they gave to that young man was excessive. It reminds me of a movie where a man was in prison for years just because the Turkish airport security found drugs in his carry-on. Ughhhh what a nightmare!

[Bulaba Khan Jones]

Lol @MistyTiger. Yes, the punishment they gave him was excessive.