Restrict tourism with North Korea, not dialogue | NK News
NK News Logo
September 29, 2026Sep 29, 2026

Weapon Directory

Opinion

Restrict tourism with North Korea, not dialogue

Why spend political capital ransoming fools rather than investing in negotiations?

We are all probably aware that American college student Otto Warmbier was recently sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in North Korea. However, many of us had already forgotten about another American being held by North Korea: Kim Dong Chul, born in South Korea but now a naturalized U.S. businessman. These two, along with South Korean-born Canadian citizen Lim Hyeon-soo, are apparently the only Westerners currently held hostage in North Korea.

Over the past several years, there have been numerous U.S. hostages sentenced to harsh prison terms for trivial offenses. Most of them have been held for varying periods