The sham grounds for detaining University of Virginia graduate student Otto Warmbier two months ago in North Korea, on a laughable pretext of committing a "hostile act" against that country, further isolates the puppet government in that obviously deeply troubled nation from the sane leaders of the West. Parading Otto and other Western detainees in front of cameras for the propaganda value to the regime just distances rational men and women from taking North Korean leaders seriously on real, crucial issues that should be occupying everyone's time and energy, not this sideshow. Whatever leverage the delusional North Korean Communist leaders may believe they are gaining by such clearly manipulated theatrics as this ridiculous arrest and detention of an American student for putting a political banner into his suitcase to take home as a souvenir, either for himself or for someone else, merits a plethora of political cartoons probing the paranoia or deviousness (or both) of the politicos who dreamed up the shady ploy.
The "banner" was not defaced or treated disrespectfully in any manner, unlike numerous instances captured on cameras of our American flag and American symbols of freedom being defaced and destroyed by foreign Communist youths.
To morph Otto's youthful prank into an international incident by accusing him of committing a "hostile act" against the entire North Korean nation is supremely ludicrous. Were it not for the mental and physical anguish this pathetic political pawn is clearly having to endure during his indefinite kidnapping by North Korea, other nations would simply shrug off the over-dramatization as yet one more example of how out-of-touch with reality the governing Party continues to display that it is. This most recent episode of North Korean antics for attention should actually set back any hope of normalizing relations between the rest of the world and North Korea.
Please sign the petition urging the immediate release of University of Virginia graduate student Otto Warmbier from his unjustifiable detainment in North Korea and his safe return to his worried family and concerned Americans and allies.
