An American sentenced to six years’ hard labour in North Korea pretended to have secret US information and was deliberately arrested in a bid to become famous and meet the imprisoned US missionary Kenneth Bae, North Korean state media said on Saturday.
Matthew Miller, 25, of Bakersfield, California, had prepared his story in advance and written in a notebook that he was seeking refuge after failing in an attempt to collect information about the US government, state agency KCNA said.
It said Miller wanted to become a “second Edward Snowden”, the former US intelligence contractor who released details of its surveillance programs.
“He perpetrated the above-said acts in the hope of becoming a ‘world famous guy’ and the ‘second Snowden’ through intentional hooliganism,” KCNA said.
“This is an intolerable insult and mockery of the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] and he therefore, deserved punishment,” KCNA said.
Miller was arrested when he tore up the tourist visa he used to enter the isolated country in April, state media said at the time. He was sentenced to six years’ hard labour by a North Korean court last Sunday.
“The results of the investigation made it clear that he did so not because of a simple lack of understanding and psychopathology, but deliberately perpetrated such criminal acts for the purpose of directly going to prison,” state media said.
It said Miller had deliberately sought his arrest so he could investigate prison and human rights conditions, and negotiate the release of Bae, who is serving a hard labour sentence after being convicted of crimes against the state last year.
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Seems the guy achieved his purpose. He looks surprised how easy it was.
I do wonder why the US doesn't ban its citizens to travel to NK. There is also a ban for Cuba, so why not NK?
