• Cambodia
  • North Korea
  • Freelance Journalism
  • Freedom of speech
  • Human Rights
  • Internet Journalism
  • Religious Extremism

Nate Thayer - Journalist

A Compilation of Current Reporting and Archived Published Work of Journalist Nate Thayer

  • Support Publication of Sympathy for the Devil
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • About Nate Thayer
    • Selected Reviews and Commentary
  • Awards and Honors
You are here: Home / Matthew Miller North Korea / Matthew Miller’s excellent adventure in North Korea

Matthew Miller’s excellent adventure in North Korea

November 14, 2014 by wpfixit

Exclusive interview with U.S. detainee reveals hurdles to getting arrested in North Korea

By Nate Thayer
November 14, 2014
For full story, please go to the excellent North Korea News website linked below
http://www.nknews.org/2014/11/matthew-millers-excellent-adventure-in-north-korea/

It’s a story that begins with North Korea trying to refuse to imprison him, and ends with him going home on the personal airplane of America’s top spy.

It’s clearly more than an average vacation, yet this is exactly what 25-year-old Matthew Miller – the Bakersfield, California citizen who had his release from North Korea secured last Saturday by U.S. Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper – has just experienced.

Enduring 210 days held prisoner by Pyongyang, Miller’s tale – now revealed exclusively by NK News – shows more signs of being an extreme vacation causing a major headache for Washington than the “six years of hard labor” North Korean state media called it when he was sentenced in September.

Despite fears in Washington about Miller’s attempt to claim “political asylum” during a tourist trip to North Korea this April, an interview with NK News shows that, far from being arrested upon entry, it took considerable effort for the curious American to get entangled in the DPRK legal system.

During his nearly six months in custody, Matthew Miller said he wanted to find out what North Korea was like beyond the tourist trail, something it seems he was successful in discovering.

“This might sound strange, but I was prepared for the ‘torture’ but instead of that I was killed with kindness, and with that my mind folded and the plan fell apart,” Miller told NK News this week from California.

“I sincerely apologized to North Korea, it was not coerced at all,” Miller said of his court statement to DPRK legal authorities.

“Before going I did not think I would feel guilt for my actions toward North Korea. Over time that changed and I did feel guilt for the crime, so in that sense I consider what I did to be a mistake even though I did achieve (my) goals.”

millercase


WHY HE WENT

When curiosity about the international pariah state was not satisfied by regular news and documentaries, the California-based citizen decided to travel to and attempt to defect to the DPRK in April 2014, because the American “just wanted to have a face-to-face with North Koreans to answer my personal questions,” he said.

“I achieved my personal goal of seeing more of North Korea. I wanted to connect with the people – not question the government or the politics. I have no personal politics. This was not a political trip.”

Miller, who left an almost undetectable online footprint up to the point of his detention, was detained by Pyongyang on April 25 – 15 days after he arrived in country.

Five months later, Miller was sentenced to six years of hard labor on espionage charges, a crime he called both true and false.

“I was not there to give secret information or anything like that. I just wanted to speak to an ordinary North Korean person about normal things,” Miller said.

Yet despite what would have once been a hard-earned propaganda prize for Pyongyang, North Korea actually tried hard to get him to leave “on the next plane” after they took him into custody, said Miller. “But I refused. So they detained me.”

Miller might be considered a tourist from hell, but one with the best of intentions.

(For complete story and links to all North Korea see NKNews.org link below http://www.nknews.org/2014/11/matthew-millers-excellent-adventure-in-north-korea/)

Filed Under: Matthew Miller North Korea, Nate Thayer, North Korea prisoners, U.S. North Korea Tagged With: Matthew Miller, Matthew Miller North Korea prisoner, Nate Thayer, North Korea

Pre-order Sympathy for the Devil, the new book by Nate Thayer

Pre-order sympathy for the devil book nate thayer

Support Publication of Sympathy for the Devil

Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalist's Memoir from Inside Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge I have been researching and writing Sympathy for the Devil: A Journalist's Memoir from Inside Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge for 25 years. For 25 years, I  conducted original reporting to compile what is now an 800 page, unedited manuscript. I have accumulated millions of words of notes, hundreds of hours of audio and video recordings and hundreds of photographs, and … [More...]

Please donate to support this blog

I am a freelance journalist who makes my living from writing. If you enjoy this blog, a donation, no matter how small or large, would be much appreciated and will go directly to supporting my ability to write and publish independently. I am grateful for the support of my readers. Donate Button with Credit Cards

FOLLOW NATE THAYER ON FACEBOOK

Tag Cloud

AP North Korea Cambodia Chris Barker Conspiracy theories Corruption democratic peoples republic of korea Dogs donald trump Freelance Journalism free speech Human Rights Humor Hun Sen Internet Journalism Journalism Journalism ethics Khmer Rouge Kim Jong-un Kim Jong Il KKK Ku Klux Klan Lamont Loyal White Knights Loyal White Knights KKK Media Ethics middle east Nate Thayer Nate Thayer blog North Korea North Korea Covert Operations North Korea Media North Korean propaganda North Korea sanctions Kim Jong-un organized crime Pol Pot Religious Extremism sex Social Media Sympathy for the Devil Terrorism U.S. domestic Terrorism U.S. Foreign Policy U.S. Politics United States War Correspondent

Categories

Featured Posts: Sympathy for the Devil by Nate Thayer

Journalist Nate Thayer views the body of Pol Pot

The Night Pol Pot Died: Excerpts from unpublished manuscript “SYMPATHY FOR THE DEVIL: A JOURNALIST’S MEMOIR INSIDE POL POT’S KHMER ROUGE” By Nate Thayer

Why Journalism is Better than a Real Job: Excerpts from Sympathy for the Devil

U.S. Govt Sues Dog for $100,000 to solve health care crisis: Mutt responds to Power with Smooches

Lunching With Mass Murderers: Khmer Rouge leaders explain why they slaughtered their own people, and why it was, really, for the best: Excerpts from “Sympathy for the Devil” By Nate Thayer

Why You Want To Avoid Getting Blown Up By A Landmine: From ‘Sympathy for the Devil’ By Nate Thayer

“Who is that singer? Johnny Jackson? Like he says, ‘We are the World!’ We are with the West! Let’s join together!” said a Khmer Rouge cadre

An Invitation to the Khmer Rouge Controlled Jungles: A travel Itinerary to the World’s Most Clandestine Guerrilla Army

My Sordid Love Affair with Journalism

More Posts about Sympathy for the Devil

Recent Blog Posts

  • Secret Identities of U.S. Nazi Terror Group Revealed
  • Cops Confront Armed Nazi Leader of Charlottesville Demo at ‘Joker’ Movie
  • Prominent white supremacist arrested on murder charges
  • North Carolina, we have a KKK problem…
  • Help me identify Nazi white supremacist, “Vic Mackey”, who wants to murder Jews, Blacks, & Journalists, and ‘rape (my) dog and ‘murder (me) with a baseball bat’

Most Popular Posts

abc stolen pic july 29 1997 1108 am edt

How Ted Koppel and ABC TV Tried to Steal my Life Work

How Ted Koppel and ABC TV Tried to Steal my Life Work By Nate Thayer December 8, 2013 I am banned by legal agreement to write the following: ABC Television/ Disney Corporation, after seven years in court, where they attempted to bankrupt me and ruin my reputation for objecting to them stealing fifteen years of […]

Herb Trader Arthur Torsone

My Friend, Arthur: the World’s Biggest Dope Trafficker

Herb Trader: A Tale of Treachery and Espionage in the Global Marijuana Trade A Book Review, Sort of….. Excerpts from Sympathy for the Devil:A Journalist’s Memoir from Inside Pol Pot’s Cambodia. (To support the publication of Sympathy for the Devil, and to read other excerpts, see the right hand column of this website) (Copyright Nate Thayer. […]

A Day in the Life of a Freelance Journalist—2013

A Day in the Life of a Freelance Journalist—2013 Here is an exchange between the Global Editor of the Atlantic Magazine and myself this afternoon attempting to solicit my professional services for an article they sought to publish after reading my story “25 Years of Slam Dunk Diplomacy: Rodman trip comes after 25 years of […]

Menu

  • Support Publication of Sympathy for the Devil
  • Shop
  • Blog
  • About Nate Thayer
    • Selected Reviews and Commentary
  • Awards and Honors

Menu

  • Cambodia
  • North Korea
  • Freelance Journalism
  • Freedom of speech
  • Human Rights
  • Internet Journalism
  • Religious Extremism

Cambodia

‘See Angkor and die’

North Korea

Jim Jones and North Korea: Comrades in Political Mass Murder

Human Rights

Assassination of Cambodian #Kemley Marks Hun Sen’s Mafia Rule

Internet Journalism

Washington Post gets punked by Malaysian earthquake “naked blogger”

Copyright © 2019 · News Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in