Theft is something considered as normal in Spain and many other countries. I remember that foreign affair minister that tried to justify it as normal and part of our Spanish DNA. He portrayed theft as something irrelevant by mentioning “our Spanish picaresque”. I personally disagree.
Unfortunately, although theft may be considered a normal or harmless it is a fact that in other countries is punished.
When theft is undertaken by breaking in a State Office at night and with premeditation things get more serious.
It turns even more serious if that theft is ordered by the intelligence agency of the country you are officially at war with and therefore things become a lot worse.
Not knowing the law does not allow you to disobey it. In the DPRK, a poster with revolutionary slogans from their leaders is considered as offensive as stealing a national flag or shield.
Those who steal national symbols have to pay for it.
Being drunk was not of any help for these Irish citizens.
http://www.joe.ie/uncategorized/irish-men-arrested-for-stealing-a-us-flag/31368
Two Spaniards arrested for stealing a Latvian flag
http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/241642/0/letonia/encarcelados/banderas/
A young man arrested for burning a flag in the gay pride parade
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/neb-man-steals-burns-neighbors-gay-pride-flag-prank-article-1.2189864
Arrested for stealing a Spanish flag
http://www.diariodemallorca.es/mallorca/2011/03/15/condenado-joven-robo-bandera-espana-quemarla/653355.html
Other democratic and capitalist countries “members of the International Community” have a harder view on this issues:
37 years in prison for insults to the King of Thailand's dog
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/15/thai-man-faces-jail-insulting-kings-dog-sarcastic-internet-post
In Thailand, any insult referring to the royal family is punished with 15 year in prison for every insulted member of the family. I can assure you that Thai jails are a lot worse than cooperative farms in Korea. In Korea at least you wont be raped or get stabbed in the back. As long as you do your work you will survive.
I have personally visited Bangkok several times but I will never go there to insult the King or his dog. Not by fear of repression but simply because if Thai citizens like love their king, who am I to insult them? It's called respect for other nations and other cultures. Something that certain people will never understand. When anyone goes to another country, he or she must respect their norms and laws, never impose their own.
This is the case of Otto Frederick Warmbier, a student from the University of Virginia that stole a poster from the internal office in Yangakdo Hotel because the CIA, this time through a church offered him 100.000 dollars for the trophy (according to Mr Warmbier public declarations)
Mr Warmbier had to access to the fifth floor of the Yangkdo Hotel in order to steal the revolutionay poster. This floor is where the internal state offices are located, they are neither accesible nor opened to the public and access is not even possible from the lift. It is necessary to use the staff's stairs to access the office.
This is the keyboard at the Yangakdo Hotel lift. As it clearly shows the lift does not stop on the fifth floor as there is not even a button for it.
In addition to this, once found the secret stairs of the personnel there are three warning notifications where the message “Do not trespass, These premises are for use of the hotel's personnel only”
If it was just a naughty joke or part of that “Spanish picaresque”, it would be more logical for him to steal a nice revolutionary poster with tanks and soldiers, or even stealing the whole slogan, but that wasn't the purpose. He had orders and knew perfectly where to infiltrate and what he was doing. He stole only the Korean part that said KIM JONG IL (김정일) knowing it is the biggest insult one can launch to the Republic because citizens defend that name with their lives.
An attack towards our leaders means an attack on the whole citizenship of the DPRK. Those american superheroes and defamers of the capitalist media often proudly insult our leaders from abroad, but I would invite them to do it publicly in Pyongyang and observe people's reactions. By the way I recommend those who would dare to get a life insurance I don't want to see Minister Margallo (foreign affair minister in Spain) asking me to interphere.
Secret camera picture shows how Mr Warmbier tears off the name of
Kim Jong Il off the revolutionary slogan.
He was found guilty of violating the 60th article of the criminal code of the DPRK which refers to subversive acts. Sentence: 15 years of forced labour which means 8 hours a day collecting rice or working in a factory from Monday to Saturday.
Good behaviour during his paid holidays could result in a reduced sentence down to 5 years. He can also get lucky and be beneficiary of an amnesty on the 16th of February Or the 15th of April.
Mr Otto Frederick Warmbier has admitted his guilt in front of the judges and the citizens of the DPRK, international media and foreign authorized ambassadors in the republic. He has asked for clemency
Advice on how to avoid these type of problems:
1 -Do not steal. Besides in Spain is a national sport, if anyone sees a mobile phone on the table or a poster in a Government office, it doesn't mean nobody owns it and one can make it his or her new property.
2 – Do respect the flag and the national symbols of other countries even if you don't like them. There is a majority in that country that want it that way and we don't have any moral authority to impose our criteria to other people
3-Consider that although certain secret services offer a great amount of money to sabotage other nations there is a possibility of not enjoying the money if your next stop is a coal mine.
Alejandro Cao de Benós
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