Where Tourists Fear to Tread

This past Monday, it was announced that Otto Warmbier, a 22 year-old student from Cincinnati, had passed away after spending nearly a year in a vegetative state. He had been held in a North Korean prison for reportedly stealing a propaganda poster from the hotel where he and a tour group stayed. The tour group, Young Pioneers Tours, has been arranging excursions to which their slogan states, "budget travel to destinations your mother would rather you stayed away from." The tour group has since stated they no longer will escort U.S. citizens to North Korea despite this being their sole incident. 

As I've stated, I'm a curious person, and I would travel to just about anywhere. However, if you were to ask me about North Korea, I always said, "Well, I'm not that curious." As it's been well documented, North Korea has been known for government control on nearly every aspect of life, its dictatorship, enormous military presence, egregious human rights abuses, absence of freedom of speech and nuclear weapons testing. Though, I believe, one could question: What could this "rogue state" possibly be like? How do millions of people live in these conditions everyday? Instead of getting your dystopian kicks in a video game or rereading Nineteen Eighty-Four, you could pay to see it for yourself.

If you grew up in a middle-to-upper class society, especially in a Western or Westernized country, it's difficult to imagine your life controlled by someone or something else:

Your sole purpose is to support the state. In North Korea or any dictatorship, you're led to believe that you were blessed to be born within those borders. You have the special privilege to serve the Chosen One- whether it be the king, supreme leader or "Big Brother." You owe your life, literally, and anything given to you (subsidies such as food, healthcare, infrastructure, etc.) is a gift. You want for nothing; what you get is just enough. The military is here to be protect you. Outsiders wouldn't understand because they serve false and weak leaders. The state is here to keep you safe from them and their propoganda.

...And if you don't like it? How could you not love it? This is heaven on Earth. If you don't agree then you must be out of your mind. It's an easy fix. You just need some reprogramming. Your family will understand. If you try to leave, you will regret that decision too. You're meant to stay here. That's your mission in life, remember?

Somehow, this is very intriguing to many individuals. In some twisted fantasy, perhaps, Westerners believe they can humanize this, or even more darkly and dangerously, beat the system. Tour groups, such as the Young Pioneers Tours, provide the path. I browsed their website, and it's mind-blowing how easy it seems. It's not very expensive for a weeks stay. In the tour guides' biographies, they all claim how "fascinated" they were by North Korea which led to their decision to embark on a tour (and subsequently, become a tour guide). Each biography states their love of the country, favorite places to visit and warmness of the locals. It's saying that, despite all those digressions, it's actually a great place once you get to know it!

In the case of Warmbier, it was a matter of intrigue and curiosity. If he chose to steal a piece of propaganda as a souvenir, it was out of nativity than actual defiance based on what his family and friends have said regarding his character. There are other cases of detained Westerners, there was a deliberate act, such as Matthew Miller who tore up his passport upon arrival and Jeffrey Fowle who left a Bible in a night club restroom. These men required facilitation from outside countries and diplomats to get them out of the country alive and well. Warmbier wasn't so lucky.

Travel and traveling has many layers. As a tourist, one chooses how deep to penetrate the layers. (This is a topic I will continue to explore further in this blog.) In the case of North Korea or any of these questionable destinations, it's deciding to abandon your sense of danger for the sake of saying you've done it- you went there. Was it the dictatorship we know it to be or something else? Were you able to look past the pretense? The answer might cost you your life.