The State Department has issued a warning to American’s wanting to travel to North Korea. Draft a will and designate appropriate insurance beneficiaries and/or power of attorney. Discuss a plan with loved ones regarding care/custody of children, pets, property, belongings, non-liquid assets (collections, artwork, etc.), funeral wishes, etc. In other words, don’t go there unless you have a death wish. The U.S. government does not provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in North Korea as it does not have diplomatic or consular relations with North Korea. Sweden serves as the protecting power for the United States in North Korea, providing limited emergency services. The North Korean government routinely delays or denies Swedish officials access to detained U.S. citizens. The below zero climate in which the U.S and North Korea operate diplomatically has gotten even colder since President Trump’s administration took office. Trump and Kim have continued to trade insults. The President has repeatedly nicknamed Kim “little rocket man” while threatening “fire and fury” if the North keeps testing intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons. Meanwhile the Korean dictator has called the President a “dotard” pushing for war on the peninsula. Mr Kim has fired several missiles and detonated six nuclear weapons in testing last year. Those violating its laws could be held in isolation without charges for lengthy periods of time, interrogated, compelled to draft public confessions” and sent to a labor camp for years, as was the case with Otto Warmbier. Mr. Warmbier was arrested at Pyongyang International Airport while awaiting departure from North Korea. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) initially announced that Mr. Warmbier had been detained for “a hostile act against the state. In a press conference on February 29, 2016, Mr. Warmbier, reading from a prepared statement, confessed that he had attempted to steal a propaganda poster from a restricted staff-only area of the second floor of the Yanggakdo Hotel to take back to the United States. Mr. Warmbier was tried and convicted for the theft of the propaganda poster from a restricted area of the hotel. Evidence at his trial, which lasted one hour, included his confession, CCTV footage, fingerprint evidence, and witness testimony. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. After 17 months in prison, Mr. Warmbier was returned to the US in a comatose state. North Korean officials had advised the State Department that Mr. Warmbier had contracted food botulism and had fallen into a coma after taking a sleeping pill. The University of Cincinnati Medical Center stated that he was in “a state of unresponsive wakefulness,” commonly known as persistent vegetative state. He was able to breathe on his own and blink his eyes, but otherwise showed no signs of awareness of his environment, such as understanding language, nor did he initiate any purposeful movements. Mr. Warmbier died in the hospital on June 19, 2017, at the age of 22.
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