Some people go to the Caribbean or Europe to enjoy a relaxing holiday — others choose
North Korea.
Little did Otto Warmbier know that, less than two years later, he would be leaving the country
in a vegetative state.
It was supposed to be a fun, budget tour of the country.
But one day, Otto went too far.
He didn’t get blackout drunk or punch a military officer — he did something arguably
even worse.
Stole a propaganda poster.
At least, so the allegation goes.
When the powers-that-be found out, he’d be sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in
North Korea’s prison system.
A reasonable sentence for such a treacherous crime.
Yet it didn’t take long for Otto to be so worn down that he’d be carried into a plane
on a stretcher, boasting deformed limbs, serious brain damage, and incapable of eating.
What about North Korea’s prison system could be so harsh that it would break this Prom
King and bright college student in a matter of months?
Let’s rewind to the start of this ultimate fall from grace.
Otto was in the Pyongyang airport, ready to leave the country, when officials pulled him
aside after seeing his passport.
A tour buddy made a joke that it would be the last time they’d see each other again
— little did he know that his words would be true.
The good news is that foreign prisoners in North Korea have special treatment compared
to locals who are arrested.
The government sees the value of foreigners as human bargaining chips who can play a part
in easing the punitive sanctions the country faces.
But there’s bad news too: less awful is still awful.
First, foreign prisoners go to a guesthouse — or, if they’re lucky, a budget hotel
— whilst they await trial.
It’s basically still a prison since they can’t leave and are watched constantly by
North Korean secret police, but that’s preferable to a labor camp.
Whilst there, they’re hardly left alone to mope around all day.
Detainees can expect to face interrogation for up to 15 hours a day for weeks on end.
It’s all part of the process to wear prisoners down psychologically and manipulate them into
confessing they’re guilty of whatever they’ve been accused of.
The interrogators have zero interest in discovering accurate information or figuring out what
really happened.
They already know what your story is — they just want to make sure that you know it, too.
If you want to keep both your life and your sanity, it’s best to just go along with
it and confess to everything.
All ready for a false confession during your so-called trial.
North Korea appoints some prisoners their own lawyers to go through the motions, but
these legal professionals serve the function of scolding the detainees rather than protecting
them.
Expect accusations of insulting the Kim dynasty or conspiring against the state, rather than
discussions about what’s happened and whether you’re guilty.
The purpose of the exercise is mostly likely to trick the accused into confessing for their
sins.
But we have to give credit where credit is due.
Most past North Korean prisoners have admitted that the country treated them reasonably well.
Foreign prisoners may receive beatings when they’re first captured, but as soon as their
nationality is established, the state doesn’t lay a hand on them.
Ultimately, North Korea accepts that they will someday have to send their prisoners
back to their home countries, and they want the world to know how benevolent and reliable
they are.
So, if this is what we call special treatment of foreigners, you might be wondering what
exactly the locals have to go through.
In two words, beatings and torture.
Locals are treated like animals for having the audacity to defy the state they grew up
in.
Firstly, they’re placed in rooms that often have nothing other than a mold-covered toilet
and sink.
Not even a bed.
Their rounds of interrogation are far more likely to get physical, and they’re forced
to cooperate without even a fake lawyer.
In terms of food, they can expect delicious delicacies like rice mixed with dirt and gravel.
Yummy.
Once a week, they might get the chance to wash themselves using a bucket of hot water.
There’s no form of entertainment other than sitting and thinking.
Occasionally inmates might be allowed luxuries such as pencil and paper or — even better
— biographies of Kim Jong-il and his father.
There’s nothing like learning about the inner life of your oppressor to distract you
from your oppression.
Psychological torture, however, is on the cards for everyone — North Koreans and foreigners
alike.
North Korea likes its prisoners to remain feeling isolated and hopeless so they can
be more easily controlled and manipulated.
Inmates have no contact with the outside world, and the foreigners are told their countries
are doing nothing to try to rescue them.
Even if negotiations to release prisoners are actually coming close to a conclusion,
the prisoners have no idea until the moment they’re about to be released.
So, if you ever go to North Korea and face arrest, don’t believe a word they tell you.
It’s unlikely that local prisoners get any kind of meaningful trial, but foreigners at
least get to pretend they do.
Delegates from their home country are present, although they have little power over the verdict.
The whole process is extremely short.
Judges make their decisions almost instantly about what will happen, based on the — cough
— false confessions of the accused.
A life sentence in a labor camp is pretty standard, but if you’re unlucky you could
face the death penalty.
Otto received a sentence for fifteen years of hard labor during his trial.
He appeared on the screen in a news-conference confession, where he broke down sobbing on
camera and said that stealing the poster was the greatest mistake of his life.
That would be the last time that most people would see him still capable of standing up
and talking.
Finally, Otto was taken to prison.
There are currently around 150,000 to 200,000 people detained in North Korean prisons — or
maybe even more.
Amongst them are a few foreign nationals, mostly South Koreans.
Inmates can expect to work on projects like coal mining whilst facing debilitating conditions
and surviving on starvation rations.
As before, foreigners get things slightly easier since their deaths would be bad press.
So, what on earth did happen in these prisons?
And how did Otto obtain his inexplicable brain damage?
As an American, he was probably taken to a special labor camp exclusively for foreigners.
Labor activities there include planting soybeans, making bricks, and shoveling coal.
Cells consist of a bed, a toilet, and little else.
And what about the locals?
You’re going to wish you never even asked.
North Koreans, who often face decade-long sentences for offenses as innocent as watching
banned soap operas from South Korea or digging for edible plants, have a real tough time
behind bars.
Sometimes, three generations of a family will be imprisoned just to punish one person.
The political prisons — also known as kwanliso — are the worst.
Most are precincts protected with electric fencing, barbed wire, and even guard towers.
Detainees are forced to dig their own graves whilst guards taunt them, raped as a punishment
for bad behavior, and tortured for not working hard enough.
Sometimes, prisoners disappear entirely.
Newborns of prisoners have been fed to dogs.
Amongst the numbers include thousands of child prisoners, many of whom are starved and overworked
to death.
Even for the soft foreign prisoners, life in a labor camp is harsh.
Inmates are held in stinky, unkempt buildings infested with mosquitoes, cockroaches, and
insects.
The dilapidated structures feature undrinkable tap water and broken lights.
They’re surrounded by guards but completely isolated from any other prisoners.
Wake-up time is at 6am, when a loudspeaker rudely awakens the prisoner, alerting them
that they should get dressed.
As a bonus, they might also get screamed at by guards, who call them by their number rather
than their name and tell them they’ll be stuck behind bars forever.
Breakfast is a meager portion of white bread and some water.
Then, it’s off to work, from 8 am until 6 pm.
All alone, of course.
Cameras and guards watch every move of the prisoners during their labor to make sure
they don’t make a single wrong move.
For lunch and dinner, it’s back to rice with gravel.
But once, a week, there’s a real treat.
A boiled egg.
I guess the officials accepted that some form of protein might be necessary for non-stop
hard labor.
Sometimes, prisoners also get their hands on potato or salted cabbage.
Because apparently cabbage is supposed to be something to look forward to now.
The weirdest part of prison time is the evening, or so-called cultural time.
You might expect this involves learning about the wonderful culture of North Korea — maybe
some music or art.
Nope.
Prisoners are simply left alone with no stimuli, perhaps to dream up the culture in their heads.
Even foreign prisoners are offered minimal protection from the elements.
Winter gets cold in North Korea, yet prisoners are expected to use their bare hands to dig
through frosty ground and to wander around without proper shoes or warm clothing.
That’s right — I’ve only been talking about the easy ride the foreigners had up
until now.
Non-nationals had things way worse.
After waking up at 5 am at the latest, the prisoners must carry out hard labor until
7 pm.
And you thought the 9 to 5 was bad.
The only break is for one hour at lunch, which consists of a measly portion of salt and corn.
Hardly the most filling meal at the best of times, never mind when you’re performing
eleven hours of gruelling tasks.
It’s not surprising most people resort to eating mice, insects, frogs, and anything
else they can find to protect them from malnutrition.
When times got really desperate, they might even turn to corn left out for animals, or
even beans stuck in animal dung.
I’ll let that one sink in for a while.
Even worse, the prisoners have to walk more than twelve miles just to reach their workplace,
usually a field of some kind.
If you thought the foreign prisoners had it bad for needing to dig using their bare hands,
try ploughing a field whilst carrying a cart like a horse, expected to run instead of walking.
Pregnant women are made to do particularly strenuous work, like going up and down hills,
to ensure they suffer miscarriages.
Then again, they’re the ones who have it lucky, because it’s not unheard of for newborn
babies to be fed to dogs whilst the mothers are made to watch.
As the detainees work, North Korean officials hurl verbal abuse at them.
Despite the desperate conditions, there’s no room for error.
Make a minor mistake or step out of line and you can expect to be subject to beatings or
torture.
Or worse.
Once a month, there are public executions for the most problematic prisoners.
Sometimes, they’re killed by their fellow prisoners, who are forced to throw rocks at
bodies hung alive from scaffolds.
In the evenings, there are meetings until late at night, meaning most prisoners never
manage more than a few hours sleep.
Not that they have a bed to sleep in, anyway.
Whoever you are, North Korean prisons are brutal.
But most people don’t end up in a vegetative state — at least, not at far as we know.
So, what really happened to Otto, the American tourist?
How did he end up with brain damage after his arrest?
North Korean officials claim Otto suffered an unexpected reaction to a sleeping pill,
which caused a rare condition called botulism.
But US officials say the young man’s injuries were from beatings and torture.
What’s the truth?
Strangely, reports suggest that Otto never even made it to a labor camp or prison.
Just one day after his trial and press conference, the staff at the hotel detaining Otto reported
he became unresponsive.
He had to be resuscitated, given oxygen, and put on a ventilator to save his life.
At that point, he most likely went directly to the place he was cared for until his return
to the US.
If this is true, the cause of his condition becomes even more mysterious.
How could Otto be completely normal one day yet fall prey to a fatal condition before
he even faced the horrendous North Korean prison conditions?
Once Otto reached the hospital, it seems healthcare professionals cared for him extremely well.
US officials admitted he’d probably received around-the-clock care, noting an impressive
lack of bed sores for someone in a vegetative state.
You’ve got to give it to North Korea, even if the motivation was covering their own asses.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to save Otto’s life.
Shortly after he returned to the US, he passed away.
Nobody really knows what happened whilst the young man was detained, and it’s unlikely
we ever will.
Two possibilities are an allergic reaction or a suicide attempt provoked by psychological
torture.
Check out our videos about the prisons where inmates live in coffins or the Devil’s Island
prison.