Matthew Miller: Trying to get jailed in North Korea

[muriel_volestrangler]

But what if the American captive wants to be there? Matthew Miller who was freed on 8 November is proving to be an intriguing case of the man who chose to defect - though he later changed his mind. He sought imprisonment even when the North Koreans wanted to put him straight on a plane to send him home.

NK News, a respected website which interviewed Miller over several days by email, paints a picture of a "curious tourist" who went on an extreme holiday. He told the website he wanted to find out what North Korea was like beyond the tourist trail. He said he "just wanted to have a face-to-face with North Koreans to answer my personal questions".

He didn't explain how getting arrested would help him meet North Koreans.

"My main fear was that they would not arrest me when I arrived," he said. As well as damaging his visa, he also produced a set of confused and confusing notes. "I wrote the notebook in China just before going to North Korea," Miller told NK News. The notes said, among other things, that he was a "hacker" intent on "removing the American military from South Korea".

"Perhaps the notebook was a little too much over the top, they instantly knew it was false and wanted to know my true purpose of visiting." In the interview, Miller also said he told officials he possessed military secrets, and that the North Koreans knew his brother was an F-35 test pilot for the US Air Force but didn't seem to care.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-30086069

[Rhiannon12866]

1. Thanks for posting this.

I thought this guy's deal sounded awfully strange.