You get caught and you are on your own.
"North says American tried to kill self" by Associated Press | July 10, 2010
SEOUL — North Korea said yesterday that an American imprisoned for illegally entering the reclusive country has tried to kill himself.
Aijalon Mahli Gomes, from Boston, attempted to commit suicide and is being treated at a hospital, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said, citing information from “a relevant’’ government entity.
KCNA said the attempt was “driven by his strong guilty conscience’’ and despair that the US government has not tried to gain his freedom.
Maybe he is not an agent after all.
The dispatch also said the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang was aware of his condition. The United States and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations and Sweden handles Washington’s interests there.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner told reporters that Swedish diplomats visited Gomes yesterday, their eighth such visit....
He must not know Bill Clinton.
At least he made it in to their paper.
"A glimmer of hope for man held in N. Korea" by James F. Smith, Globe Staff | July 11, 2010
It took less than two weeks for a group of Russian spies arrested in several US cities to make their way home to Moscow in a storybook spy swap.
Related: The Boston Sunday Globe Writes a Russian Spy Story
But for Aijalon Mahli Gomes, the 31-year-old Boston man serving an eight-year prison term for entering North Korea illegally, there has been no quick diplomatic rescue.
Why don't they love me?
The North Korean official news agency reported on Friday that Gomes, who was arrested on Jan. 25 after crossing into North Korea, had attempted suicide and was being treated in a hospital in the capital, Pyongyang. The US State Department responded by calling yet again for his release on humanitarian grounds.
Can't you guys send Bill Clinton, or is that just for Al Gore's girls?
The contrast between the speedy resolution of the case involving the Russian spies and Gomes’s plight in North Korea reflects the dramatic difference between the improving US-Russian relationship and the worsening tensions between the isolated North Korean regime and the rest of the world.
Which now apparently consists of the United States and Israel according to my jewspaper.
Now, however, one North Korea expert says there may be a glimmer of hope for Gomes in what he sees as recent signals from North Korea and the United States that they want to move beyond the high-stakes confrontation over the March sinking of a South Korean naval vessel that killed 46 sailors.
That's why the U.S. keeps harping on the issue and is sending a massive fleet for war game exercises, huh?
Oh, right, this is a Globe report.
Sung-Yoon Lee, an adjunct professor of international politics at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said yesterday that North Korea had responded with restraint to a UN statement on Friday that condemned the sinking but stopped short of blaming the North directly.
That is because they did not do it.
See: Sinking the Chances of Korean Peace
Now who would want to do that and why?
“I am usually not an optimist with North Korea, but it may be a positive sign in the sense that North Korea is indicating it really wants to release him for the right price, whatever that may be,’’ Lee said.
How does it feel to be a bargaining chip, tool, 'er, fool?
As the confrontation over the ship’s sinking ratcheted up, the North threatened to treat Gomes as a prisoner of war, rather than a lone activist who crossed into the North to protest human rights violations there.
Did they torture him like we do?
Gomes, a graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine and a devout Christian, had been teaching English in South Korea for a couple of years. He was reported to have attended protests calling for the release of American missionary Robert Park, who was arrested when he crossed into the North on Christmas Day. Park, who was released in February after 43 days in custody, was reportedly mistreated by his jailers and received medical treatment in California after his release....
Also see: The Boston Globe's Invisible Ink: Slapping at a Korean Handshake
“He has no intelligence value,’’ said Lee. “So maybe they are making gestures to the US, and signaling, ‘We want to work out a deal.’ ’’
So says my lying, concealing, agenda-pushing newspaper.
Neither North Korean nor US officials have shed much light on Gomes’s condition. The official North Korean news agency said he had attempted suicide because he felt his government hadn’t done enough to obtain his release.
State Department spokesman Marc C. Toner said on Friday that Swedish diplomats, who represent US interests in North Korea, had visited Gomes for the eighth time. He declined to comment on the suicide report or on Gomes’s condition, citing privacy concerns.
Gomes’s family in Boston has consistently declined to comment beyond saying through spokeswoman Thaleia Schlesinger that they are concerned for his well-being and hope he will be released soon on humanitarian grounds, as were Park and two other detained Americans in the past year. Gomes’ mother was allowed a phone call with him in April.
Gore girls all but forgotten, 'eh?
The international brinksmanship ultimately revolves around the North Korean nuclear threat and the attempts to bring North Korea back to the bargaining table to end its nuclear weapons program.
Again, so says my lying, concealing, agenda-pushing newspaper.
Lee said it was significant that after Friday’s relatively muted UN statement, North Korea hinted it might return to the stalled six-country negotiations over its nuclear program, a key strategic goal of the Obama administration.
So just as the worsening tensions aggravated Gomes’ prospects in the past few months, Lee said, the possibility that North Korea may return to negotiations raises hopes for his eventual release.
What a bunch of mixed messages from the BG, huh?
Fine filler, 'eh, readers?
Related: North Korea Captures Another CIA Spy
Kerry Coming to Rescue in Korea
Then why is he still there?
