Step 1: Don't Tour North Korea

The WSJ has a video up, "Keeping Safe While Touring North Korea":

An 85-year-old American was arrested in North Korea due to his service in the Korean War. Simon Cockerell of Koryo Tours, which arranges group visits to the country, tells the WSJ's Deborah Kan what American tourists need to do to keep themselves safe.

The desire to tour North Korea should be your first warning that you suffer from serious mental health issues and have no business plopping yourself down in the middle of one of the most brutal, repressive regimes on earth to engage in tourism! Seek help.

Later: Man, having watched the video now, I'd say it's extremely disappointing, except that it's exactly what I expected. It's a self-serving propaganda pitch from a tour operator. The WSJ interviewer, Deborah Kan, declines to give him anything but softball questions that allow him to present his "nothing to see here, move along, no trouble at all" spiel.

I get angry that journalists today feel apparently no obligation to ask hard questions. She asks about instructions that tourists are given -- do's and don'ts, mostly don'ts -- but never digs down into specifics or asks about the regime's brutal repression of its citizens, the Potemkin village experience it provides to tourists and the morality of pumping tourist dollars into this ugly, ugly evil system to help it keep itself afloat.

For the Useful Idiot file: In another article on the detention, a commenter says: "I would probably agree with North Korea. I don’t think we would look kindly on a 90 year old Japanese Emperor sight seeing Pearl Harbor."

How can a statement that idiotic not want to make you pound your head against a wall? The Emperor of Japan is a ceremonial figure, recognized and honored by the U.S. government. Should he or any member of the Japanese imperial family decide to visit Pearl Harbor, they'd get the VIP treatment. As far as aging Japanese soldiers, the U.S. welcomes all Japanese citizens, is no longer seeking any Japanese war criminals and would not do this to any Japanese citizen visiting our shores.

I'm disappointed that the man, Merrill E. Newman, dutifully confessed to all crimes. I'd hope that even at 85 -- especially at 85 -- I'd have the stones to tell the North Koreans where to stuff their confession.