TankieJerk

An attendant told his tour group that he wouldn't be able to fly back with them because he was sick and had to be taken to the hospital. Then he appears on TV for the trial, sobbing and reading the statement. Then the world hears nothing for a year. Donald Trump wins the 2016 election, and the Trump administration says Trump secured Otto's release. Otto is flown back to America in a coma. He can breathe and blink, can't do anything else on his own. No response to stimuli.

The North Korean doctors say he caught a case of botulism from some bad food and took a sleeping pill, and he's been like that since a month after the conviction. Over a year. They share two MRI scans, they say one is recent and one's a year old. The American doctors look at him. They say he's got serious brain damage caused by lack of oxygen to the brain, consistent with a cardiopulmonary event. No signs of physical trauma, no healed skull fractures. But also no signs of botulism. Some doctors say it's suspicious, others say there wouldn't be signs after this long. He's in remarkably good shape for someone who's been in a coma for a year. Good muscle mass for the circumstances, excellent skin condition. The parents are told all of this and consulted. The parents say pull the plug.

The parents sue North Korea for wrongful death. North Korea does not send a representative to the trial, so the parents win by default. Judge awards them 500 million and sends the bill to North Korea. North Korea send it back, unpaid. The parents get their money from the sale of a North Korean cargo ship that America seized for smuggling, and from a North Korean bank. They use the money to give a North Korean defector a scholarship.

Young Pioneers, the tourism company that sold Otto the holiday, no longer takes American tourists to North Korea, but is happy to take people from other countries. You can go buy a tour on their website and get drunk in Pyongyang.

Huh, people really did forget. Ignorance is a bliss.

they claimed it was from a suicide attempt, but didn’t explain why his teeth had been knocked out and put back wrong

I know

Imagine someone using the same "that was stupid therefore they deserved the punishment" logic with another country attacking some US facility...

He went to a known totalitarian police state to fuck around, which is not just stupid, it's MONUMENTALLY STUPID and undeserving of sympathy, and now he's finding out.

Otto joined a budget tour for 800 euros on his way to study in Hong Kong. He was 21. The company advertises to young people and makes visiting North Korea easy. Here's their website homepage:

It seems to Me that Otto wasn't very proactive at all. He was a 21 year old who fell for a marketing line. He took the poster off the wall and put it on the floor at 02:00 on New Years Day, after a night of partying and drinking.