I am imagining the questions people will ask me about this year when I return home. “You were in Korea? Hope it wasn’t the North, He he he!” Unless you’re Bill Clinton, you can’t simply go to North Korea. I’m not sure why anyone would want to anyways, given their record of hospitality. Aijalon Mahli Gomes, an American man from Boston and graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, was caught earlier this year for snooping around in North Korea after sneaking across the Chinese border. He was just recently sentenced to 8 years in a hard labor camp and fined $700,000 for entering the country illegally, and unspecified “hostile acts”. Gomes had apparently been teaching English in South Korea for some time, and was perhaps inspired to enter North Korea in protest of their human rights violations. The following excerpt was taken from a report by the Associated Press
North Korea expert Yoo Ho-yeol of Korea University in Seoul said Gomes will likely be released without having to serve the prison term. He predicted North Korea would use him as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the U.S. on its nuclear program. “Continuing to hold him in custody is also a burden for North Korea,” as it will only galvanize criticism of its human rights record, Yoo said.
- Near the DMZ, on the South Korean side of course