...some poor wretch goes missing in North Korea. Who the hell goes there?

now, after terrifying and humiliating an old man--what a bunch of toughsters you are, NK!

but based on what little info I can get via The Google I don't see any indication that's the case here. The guy he was traveling with was a retired Stanford professor who lectured on WWII at least some of the time (they only department I can see him attached to is Continuing Education, so I'm not sure that was his primary area of study but one result mentions him lecturing on the firebombing of Dresden) so it seems like maybe this is what happened:

Elderly professor with an interest in history and his friend the equally elderly Korean war vet (who speaks Korean) decide to go to NK. Because they're guys who dig military history they show an interest in NK's fifties era equipment, maybe take some pictures. Their NK minders decide they're spies, or at least that this is suspicious enough that they'll be in deep shit if they don't kick it up the chain, and report this. The authorities go on the plane and pull them off to interrogate them, and keep the guy who speaks Korean, maybe because he's got the camera or something.

No idea if that's what actually happened, but it seems like a reasonably likely scenario.

I've been fishing for some semblance of reason for such a stupid action.

Eight-five? Couldn't they find at least a sixty year old to send out?

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

to define DPRK government twerps, and though all of the slang and psychological verbiage works there is still insufficient language ugly enough to equal their acts. They aren't worth the trouble.

side didn't win? Especially with how the Korean war ended with a prolonged ceasefire. What made him think that he'd be welcomed there?

I'd have thought that Korean War and Vietnam War veterans would have a good long think about whether the country they left behind considers them as ongoing enemies or possibly even views them as war criminals. It's not unheard of for people in advanced years to face prosecution for their conduct during times of war.

He did fight in a war (that's still technically going on) against them.

from Afghanistan or Iraq decided to take a trip to the US and got thrown in Gitmo, few of us would be surprised. What are the legal differences that would separate such an imprisonment from this guy being arrested in North Korea?

is someone not in the uniform of a countries armed forces, whereas, the Korean War was fought by armies of countries in uniform.

I went back to Vietnam with several former comrades and we were treated very graciously and courteously, the people were very friendly and were eager to hear our stories of when we served.

N. Korea on the other hand? If I were an NK war veteran, I would stay as far as away from that fucked up country as I could.

For example, if someone was part of a group that shot up a village of civilians, and the Vietnamese government were to discover that individual was in their country, would they do nothing?

I talked to a Vietnamese official and posed pretty much the same question to him and he told me that the govt has no interest in prosecuting "war crimes" from the Vietnam War, he said that his side was guilty of it also, which was quite the admission from a govt. official.
Vietnam realizes that we are on the same side as far as China is concerned and they want our business and trade.

The Americans went back, by and large, to heal emotional wounds from the Vietnam War. They would often approach Vietnamese men of about their age, who must likely were soldiers at that time, just to say "I'm sorry for what we did." They were greeted with open arms and forgiveness, and those men came home to the US feeling so relieved.

North Korea says American it detained is a criminal



By Jack Kim, Reuters

North Korea said on Saturday it had arrested U.S. citizen Merrill E. Newman for "hostile acts" against the state and accused him of being "a criminal" who was involved in the killing of civilians during the 1950-53 Korean War.

Newman "masterminded espionage and subversive activities against the DPRK and in this course he was involved in killings of service personnel of the Korean People's Army and innocent civilians," the North's official KCNA news agency said.

DPRK is short for the North's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. North Korea is technically still at war with the South and the United States as a truce, not a peace treaty, was signed to end the Korean conflict.

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/11/29/21680934-north-korea-says-american-it-detained-is-a-criminal?lite

That's pretty much it in a nutshell.

Sentence him to life in America.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]

His "letter of confession" was full of grammatical errors and phrasing that an American English speaker/writer wouldn't use.

"I realize that I cannot be forgiven for my offensives but I beg for pardon on my knees by apologizing for my offensives sincerely toward the DPRK government and the Korean people and I want not punish me."

Someone had to have written it for him.

I doubt they would have had the capability to keep records from the era that would have documented this veteran's "crimes" against the DPRK. They probably just realized they had a potential bargaining chip in their country and couldn't resist the opportunity to take it.