IMO, nothing Otto said on the recording released by North Korea should be accepted as fact. He was clearly under duress when he read his written statement--a statement that I'm certain was written by the DPRK and forced upon him. The statement he made about making the biggest mistake of his life could have been about anything. His worst mistake had to be entering that country at all.
The "confession" doesn't even make logical sense, if you really think about it. First, he said he wanted to give the poster to a woman at his church in Ohio in exchange for a car that was valued at $10,000. He justified the reason with claims that his mother was struggling financially and they couldn't afford to buy it otherwise. Then, he said he was a member of the "Z" society--one of several secret societies at UVA. He went on to claim that the "Z" society is closely tied to the CIA, and he wanted to impress them by taking them the poster. So, which is it? Did he want to give it the church lady in exchange for a car or did he want to bequeath it to the CIA to make a lasting impression? Give me a break.
Here is was I think REALLY happened:
Otto was likely being closely watched by the North Korean government during his entire stay. By all appearances, he was a young, vivacious, red-blooded American man enjoying life. He was attractive and wore nice clothing. He looked like the perfect bargaining chip, so they detained him. They probably issued threats, while also promising quick release, to get him to reassure the tour group company that he was sick and going to the hospital. After he was detained (or maybe even before then), they interrogated him and/or researched his background to find anything they could use "to prove" he entered their country with malicious intent and justified his imprisonment. They might have stumbled upon information about a possible secret society at UVA while researching the school let their imaginations run amok. Or maybe it was the perfect kind of thing they'd hoped to find, as it allowed them to take the leap from theft to espionage. It was the "proof" North Korea needed to support their notion that Otto had been sent by the US government to spy on their country and justified the harsh punishment that he ultimately received.
Regardless, the video NK released to the public does not definitively prove their allegations. The video that shows him removing the poster wasn't seen until the video of his tearful "confession" and sentencing was released--three months after he was detained. (His family had no idea where he was, or that he was even being held, all that time.)
I mean, for all we know, they coerced him to "steal the poster" and recorded it AFTER they stopped him from boarding the plane.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
