North Korea detains 85 year old war veteran

[Matteo]

http://tinyurl.com/o3rwxm8

Once again, North Korea are in desperate need for foreign aid and attention. I wonder how long this man will be detained now. Hopefully it is nothing like American Kenneth Bae who is currently serving a 15 year sentence for taking photos depicting starvation and poverty in the reclusive state.

However, in saying that, Newman took quite the risk by entering the country. We all know it is strongly inadvisable to travel to North Korea, even if security is promised. The US government are apparently doing 'very little' to free the man, but, in reality, there is very little you can do. We can only hope for the best.

[Everlong]

Yeah, doing "very little" shouldn't be a surprise here -- I think everybody knows the risks associated with traveling to North Korea at this point. It's a really shitty situation but there's not much the US can do without starting an international incident.

[AkydefGoldberg]

It's a pain in the ass but North Korea have got history with appending US citizens - Kenneth Bae a prime example.

TBH, as said in the article, they use people like these to begin negotiations so they can get much needed aid. They don't want to go begging for it to the US so they use situations like these so the US says: "Hey, do you want some aid? If you let go our citizen." Then they save face.

Hopefully the two chaps are looked after but it might be a long wait before they are released.