Tag: Matthew Miller

I thought maybe that former North Korean detainee Matthew Miller had some mental issues to explain his odd detention in North Korea, but after reading this great NK News interview with him it turns out he is just an idiot:

It’s a story that begins with North Korea trying to refuse to imprison him, and ends with him going home on the personal airplane of America’s top spy.

It’s clearly more than an average vacation, yet this is exactly what 25-year-old Matthew Miller – the Bakersfield, California citizen who had his release from North Korea secured last Saturday by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper – has just experienced.

Enduring 210 days held prisoner by Pyongyang, Miller’s tale – now revealed exclusively by NK News – shows more signs of being an extreme vacation causing a major headache for Washington than the “six years of hard labor” North Korean state media called it when he was sentenced in September.

Despite fears in Washington about Miller’s attempt to claim “political asylum” during a tourist trip to North Korea this April, an interview with NK News shows that, far from being arrested upon entry, it took considerable effort for the curious American to get entangled in the DPRK legal system.

During his nearly six months in custody, Matthew Miller said he wanted to find out what North Korea was like beyond the tourist trail, something it seems he was successful in discovering.

“This might sound strange, but I was prepared for the ‘torture’ but instead of that I was killed with kindness, and with that my mind folded and the plan fell apart,” Miller told NK News this week from California.

“I sincerely apologized to North Korea, it was not coerced at all,” Miller said of his court statement to DPRK legal authorities.

“Before going I did not think I would feel guilt for my actions toward North Korea. Over time that changed and I did feel guilt for the crime, so in that sense I consider what I did to be a mistake even though I did achieve (my) goals.”  [NK News]

I recommend reading the whole interview at the link, but even the North Koreans saw that this guy was an idiot and were eager to get rid of him. It just makes me wonder if idiots like this should be charged with a crime for basically wasting everyone’s time, even the North Koreans with his stupidity? Or charge him for the cost of using the airplane to fly him out of North Korea?

The New York Times has a long article published about the release of the two American detainees in North Korea this weekend:

North Korea released two Americans who had been accused of trying to subvert the secretive state, after the director of national intelligence for the United States flew to the country on a secret mission and left on Saturday with the men aboard his aircraft.

The plane carrying the Americans — Kenneth Bae and Matthew Todd Miller — and the national intelligence director, James R. Clapper Jr., landed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma, Wash., about 9:15 p.m. Pacific time on Saturday.

Mr. Bae walked off the plane and into the embrace of relatives on the tarmac. Mr. Miller, his head shaved, sprinted down the steps into the arms of his parents, who were waiting for him at the bottom.

Securing the releases was an unusual role for Mr. Clapper, the nation’s most senior intelligence official, whose job is to coordinate policy and operations among the nation’s 16 spy agencies. Gruff, blunt-speaking and seen by many in the Obama administration as a throwback to the Cold War, the retired general is an unlikely diplomat but, in the words of one American official, “perfect for the North Koreans.” [New York Times]

You can read more at the link, but the release of all the American detainees in North Korea has got me wondering what was the backroom agreement for their release?  Could the Obama administration be trying to copy the Bush administration by trying to manufacture a foreign policy success with North Korea at the end of their Presidency?  The Agreed Framework 2.0 deal that the Bush administration agreed to with North Korea was predictably a failure and I do not see any change in the nature of the North Korean regime that would indicate any future deal would be any different.  Anyone else have any thoughts on this?

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet” lang=”en”><p>A scrap from Matthew Miller&#39;s all-caps &#39;confession&#39; / failed application for full &#39;fellow-traveller&#39; status in DPRK. <a href=”http://t.co/SlgDm6Orzs”>pic.twitter.com/SlgDm6Orzs</a></p>&mdash; Adam Cathcart (@adamcathcart) <a href=”https://twitter.com/adamcathcart/status/511459634914144256″>September 15, 2014</a></blockquote>
<script async src=”//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

I figured this guy had some kind of mental problem to want to defect to North Korea, but if what the North Koreans say is true Miller still has mental issues but for a different reason:

North Korea’s Supreme Court on Sunday sentenced a 24-year-old American man to six years of hard labor for entering the country illegally and trying to commit espionage.

At a trial that lasted about 90 minutes, the court said Matthew Miller, of Bakersfield, California, tore up his tourist visa at Pyongyang’s airport upon arrival on April 10 and admitted to having the “wild ambition” of experiencing prison life so that he could secretly investigate North Korea’s human rights situation.

Miller, who waived the right to a lawyer, was handcuffed and led from the courtroom after his sentencing. The court ruled that it would not hear any appeals to its decision.

Earlier, it had been believed that Miller had sought asylum when he entered North Korea. During the trial, however, the prosecution argued that it was a ruse and that Miller also falsely claimed to have secret information about the U.S. military in South Korea on his iPad and iPod.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but the North Koreans have trotted out Miller like the other two Americans they have detained to plead for the US to release them by sending a senior representative.  If the Obama administration does decide to send someone I wonder if Bill Clinton be interested in going back over there again?

Anyway Yonhap is reporting that he was sentenced to six years of hard labor.