Almost two years ago, Otto Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years in prison in North Korea. Warmbier, an American student, was touring North Korea when he was allegedly caught stealing a propaganda poster from a hotel in Pyongyang, the country’s capitol. His sentence was cut short Tuesday when he was released and returned to the U.S., in a coma. According to officials in North Korea, shortly after being sentenced he came down with Botulism, an infectious disease usually caused by poor food preservation and preparation, and was given a sleeping pill. Warmbier is currently at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where the diagnosis remains unconfirmed. Botulism is a highly unlikely cause of this coma, however, as it can be treated with antitoxin and very rarely leads to death, according to the CDC website. A more realistic cause of Warmbier’s current condition would be physical abuse he may have sustained since his arrest. The New York Times even reported that “A senior American official has said the United States obtained intelligence reports that he had been repeatedly beaten."
Warmbier now serves as another testament to North Korea’s unorthodox way of life.
Korea has always been known as a hermit country, but it’s isolation has only intensified since the Korean War in the early 1950s. Because of North Korea’s Juche ideology created by Kim Jong Il, the second Supreme Leader, the country has been living in a state of self-reliance with little contact and no help from the outside world. The people live in constant praise of their Supreme Leader, believing wholeheartedly that he can do no wrong. What they don’t know, however, is how impoverished and malnourished their country is. Opposite from the ideology the people have grown to accept, the government is not able to provide for the 25 million people living there.
But, if they do decide to rebel against the government, much like Warmbier, they are sent to one of the many concentration camps located in the country. These concentration camps provide unsanitary conditions, and very rarely, if ever, does anyone make it out alive. Torture is not uncommon, and many prisoners experience both physical and mental torture. Otto Warmbier, more than likely, was a victim of both.
There have only been a handful of American prisoners in North Korea, many have stated that they were not subjected to physical torture, which makes Warmbier’s case unique. The situation in and of itself is unique. In any modernized culture, it’s unheard of to be sentenced to 15 years of hard labor for stealing a poster. Unfortunately, this is the North Korean mentality against Americans. Due to tension caused by the Korean War, the North Korean government, now run by Kim Jong Un, displays anti-American propaganda any chance they get.
Now that Warmbier is back, we are left wondering what we can do to prevent incidents like this from happening again. This begs the question as to whether we intervene with North Korea’s abusive government like we once did and are known to do, or do we leave them as is? An even better question to ask is, with North Korea sending missiles into the ocean, are we headed toward another Cold War situation, or will our government be able to repair our relationship?
