The crossing comes at a time of high tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the arrival of a U.S. nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarine in South Korea for a rare visit in a warning to North Korea over its own military activities.
Imagine barbecuing in your garden and someone with a loaded assault rifle comes to you and start shouting at you to stop acting like a dangerous motherfucker with your kitchen knives
Well, that’s certainly a bold move
Right? Good for him.
I’m pretty sure that whatever his charges are, defecting to north Korea was a bad idea.
If he’s lucky he’ll have a standard of living almost as high as federal prison.
Shut up lib
How exactly do you know this? You’ve been there or just reporting what you heard from Western news?
I’m pretty sure that whatever his charges are, defecting to north Korea was a bad idea.
Dang, you’re “pretty sure”? How’d you get so confident?
I think he knew that and still made the choice. There’s a handful of US defectors in the DPRK because they were ideologically closer to communism than imperialism, so maybe he’ll fare as well as he hopes.
I doubt this was ideological. He would have tried this earlier in his time in the military and likely wouldn’t have joined the military at all I would imagine
Ideology changes over time. Being in the military is often a catalyst for big changes to ideology.
I am curious why that soldier faced disciplinary action in the first place. US soldiers aren’t exactly famous for good ethics, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he committed acts heinous enough to warrant escape.
By the way, wouldn’t the DPRK just send him back?
Actually I can believe that he’s a victim, because the US army tends to protect their actual criminals and prosecute the whistleblowers.
I am curious why that soldier faced disciplinary action in the first place. US soldiers aren’t exactly famous for good ethics, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he committed acts heinous enough to warrant escape.
The DPRK should investigate what he did and sentence him according to their laws.
By the way, wouldn’t the DPRK just send him back?
They’ll probably (rightly) suspect it as an espionage attempt and imprison him for six months or so before eventually deporting him. That’s what they’ve done with westerners in the past.
I don’t think this has happened since like the Korean war, so who knows tho
I would hope with an honest to goodness defection they would not deport him.
I hope so too!
I linked to an article elsewhere in this thread – looks like he got in a fight with a Korean civilian and was disorderly/combative with cops when arrested.
I mean, the only parts of Amerika that live better than the pen are the gateds on the coasts, and the former plantations; so I don’t know what you’re going on about there… I categorically refuse to denounce homeboy’s defection unless it comes out he was wanted for like-- sex crimes or smth. In which case, light him up on sight.
This is really underestimating how bad U.S. prisons are, and while god damn America and all, it’s still a country with a high standard of living for most people.
We have to be in touch with the actual material conditions of people, and “only a few places are better than federal custody” just isn’t that.
Godspeed, you crazy bastard. o7
Jokes aside I wouldn’t do this if I were him. He’s probably going to be in prison suspected as a foreign infiltrator.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-66219603.amp
He apparently got in a fight with a Korean civilian and at least was disorderly (if not combative) when arrested. No idea what type of penalty that would get someone at a U.S. court martial, but prison and a dishonorable discharge (making gainful employment extremely difficult) are probably on the table, maybe guaranteed.
No idea what I’d do in that situation, but even knowing he’d be detained for a while in the DPRK it might look better than the alternative.
Of course, there’s a big chance he is trying to infiltrate the country, and this is pretext. He’s 23, not some kid right out of high school, which to me suggests that’s far from out of the question.
The article just says “Korean” which I assume means southerner since it was in Seoul, but I initially got the impression that the civilian was from the DPRK. Just leaving this here in case people have the same confusion.
