And then there were three. The North Korean government announced on Friday that it has detained another American tourist, bringing the tally of western hostages festering in Pyongyang to two Americans and one Canadian.
The latest detainee is an undergraduate at the University of Virginia named Otto Frederick Warmbier, reports the New York Times. While visiting North Korea as a tourist over the New Year, he allegedly committed a “hostile act.” He’s been in custody since January 2.
I hope Warmbier comes home safely. But he really shouldn’t have been in North Korea in the first place. There’s something truly ghoulish about Americans visiting North Korea; well-fed types visiting a totalitarian theme park rife with suffering. The human zoo element is hard to ignore. And by the way, all of the tours follow the same set itinerary; the Internet is full of seemingly thousands of breathless travelogues describing visits to the Juche Tower, the Pyongyang metro, and other familiar sights. Message to would-be misery tourists: You won’t see anything that thousands of people haven’t already seen before.
And then there’s, perhaps, the more important matter: cold hard cash. Foreign tourists have become a crucial source of income for the Pyongyang regime over the past decade or so. Tourists held provide funds necessary to run the gulag, the secret police, and the country’s nuclear program. Indeed, despite being one of the world’s poorest countries, North Korea is an extremely expensive place to visit; package tours (the only way one can go) can be priced in the multiple thousands of dollars. That’s pure profit for one of the world’s most evil dictatorships.
But whatever Warmbier handed over to Pyongyang for the “privilege” of visiting North Korea will look like a pittance compared to whatever the United States will end up paying to get him back. Whether we ultimately pay money or ease sanctions, there’s no doubt that Kim Jong-un will use this situation to extract a considerable ransom. (And that couldn’t come at a worse time, just as sanctions against North Korea are seemingly about to be ramped up in the wake of yet another nuclear test.) Moreover, as the Obama administration’s dealings with Iran and the Taliban have shown, the United States is now quite willing to pay significant prices to get our hostages back. You can be sure that fact has not been lost on the North Korean dictator.
Warmbier is in many ways a victim, and not just of North Korea, but of the companies that facilitate travel to the country. Young Pioneer Tours, the Beijing-based outfit that the young man went there with, claims on its website that, “Despite what you may hear, North Korea is probably one of the safest places on Earth to visit. Tourism is very welcomed in North Korea, thus tourists are cherished and well taken care of.” That’s a remarkable claim, given North Korea’s prolific history of snatching visitors.
We should do whatever we can to get Warmbier and his compatriot home. But after we do so, we need to impose a travel ban. Or at least, a travel-at-your-own-risk policy. Sure, among some circles it’s “cool” to post photos of yourself on Instagram standing in front of that giant statue of Kim Il-sung. But that doesn’t override pressing concerns about personal safety, national security – or, indeed, basic morality.
