North Korea may have detained 85 years old Veteran

(Reuters) - North Korea appears to have detained an 85-year-old California man who had entered the country on a tourist visa, pulling him off a plane as he was about to leave the reclusive Asian country last month, according to media reports on Wednesday.
Japan's Kyodo News Service, citing an unnamed diplomatic source in a report from Beijing, said the man entered North Korea for sightseeing last month with a valid visa and may have been detained. The report did not identify him. But neighbors of 85-year-old Merrill Newman in the Northern California city of Palo Alto told Reuters on Wednesday they were concerned about his fate after he travelled to North Korea but failed to return.
The San Jose Mercury News, citing unnamed sources, had earlier identified Newman as the detained American, saying he was a Korean war veteran who was taken off a plane as he was about to leave North Korea on October 26. The detention could become another diplomatic bargaining chip for North Korea, which has held Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American Christian missionary, since November 2012, Kyodo said. Bae has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor.

Source Reuters

This is insane.. they should at least let the elderly people out of their political agenda. Shame on NK.. you are insane !

The only thing I can really say about this is, did they expect better?

Really, you could not pay me to go to North Korea. I do not care how rich the history is, how great the monuments are. You go there you gamble with your life.

reply to post by dollukka


The guy should not have been detained/arrested, but, he was a Korean War Veteran and that makes him in the eyes of the NK a valid target for their psychotic regime. It would be like me going back to a number of African countries and expecting it's gonna be all love and kumbaya, nope, not going to happen. When traveling anywhere even if you don't have a past in the places you are going you really have to take stock of the worst case scenario. If you can prepare for it, ok, if you can't, don't go.

Cheers - Dave

An American gets arrested in North Korea.

I'm sorry but I chuckle when I read news reports like this, I really do. People feeling sorry for this man because of his age; an 85 year old war veteran should have been wiser, in my opinion, than going for a holiday in a nation that actively advocates the destruction of the United States and demonizes its armed forces. Surely an issue regarding his participation of the Korean War is behind this detention.

If you're an American and don't want a tour of a North Korean prison, don't go to North Korea. Can it be any simpler than that?

Don't get me wrong, I do hope for the man's safe return. But I wouldn't had to if he had chosen to visit South Korea, instead.

I say good for north korea.

Why SHOULD americans be allowed to basically mock the entire conflict by going over there on vacations and sight seeing, just to walk away as if they were simply so welcome to begin with.

shame on that man for thinking it wouldnt end up this way.