As 85 year-old Merrill Newman of Palo Alto, California begins his fourth week as a North Korean detainee, the reason for his arrest–as he sat on a plane, about to leave the country, reportedly–is still unknown.

On the other hand, when Chantal Sobkowicz was locked up in Pyongyang, the reasons were a bit more clear-cut.

In July 1989, a 40 year-old Sobkowicz went to North Korea for the first time. Part of a three-person delegation, Sobkowicz, a Polish national who lives in France, left Paris for Pyongyang to spend a short stretch working as a translator for what she refers