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US student declared dead reportedly 'kidnapped to teach English to Kim Jong-un'
- dalke 10y agoThe word should be "reportedly", not "actually".
- snowy 10y agoPoint taken. I have updated the title.
- tonicoto 10y agoHe's probably there against his will (although we don't know), but does he have a good life? Being Kim Jong-un's private teacher, I'd say he probably does. Anyway, didn't Kim Jong-un study in Switzerland or something like that? How come he doesn't know English?
- anonymousDan 10y agoUmm, because English is not a national language in Switzerland perhaps?
- rwmj 10y agoIt's a gilded cage. At any moment he and his family could be incarcerated or killed for saying the wrong thing. Quite possibly his wife is a spy, and even if she isn't he probably suspects her.
- navls 10y agoI'd recommend listening to act one from This American Life ep. 556 (http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/556/same-bed-different-dreams http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/556/s...). They interview two people captured by Kim Jong-Il to make movies. It sounded like a pretty easy life, but there's no joy in it if you can't leave.
- withdavidli 10y agoDon't think he would have a good life, maybe compared to their residents. We just learned that they executed their vice premier of education, now this person is directly responsible for part of Kim's education.
- _petronius 10y agoNot sure being held against your will, out of touch with your friends and family, unable to visit much less talk to them, can be dismissed as a "good life", no matter what you are provided with materially. Or to take a less extreme example than this (in some ways), Ed Snowden might make good money on the speaking circuit, but even then, would any of us envy being effectively exiled from our home, never allowed to return? Adapting to a new place or a new culture can be psychologically hard even when you want to do it. Exile or imprisonment is pretty cruel under any circumstances.
- maxxxxx 10y agoI don't think it's a good life to be kept somewhere and not allowed to leave. Especially while knowing that if you don't please your captor he can have you killed whenever he likes. There is a book by an actress that got kidnapped and had to make films for Kim Jong Il with her also kidnapped divorced husband. Not a good life.
- helthanatos 10y agoIt might be an OK life if he didn't have to worship "Mr. Great Leader," but I would probably kill myself before being forced into a ridiculous life such as that.
- mkagenius 10y agoWhy doesn't he just hire people, I am sure lot of people will be willing to do so.
- dogma1138 10y agoHow many people will be willing to work for an employer that can have them executed based on how poorly his morning bowel went?
- hkmurakami 10y agoWant there something about a previous NK leader kidnapping a South Korean actor and actress to satisfy his own whims about creating more movies with them in the lead roles? This is almost as strange.
- dennmart 10y agoI think what you're referring to was a South Korean actress and her ex-husband filmmaker being abducted back in the '70s. There's a book titled A Kim Jong-Il Production: The Extraordinary True Story of a Kidnapped Filmmaker, His Star Actress, and a Young Dictator's Rise to Power about this story, pretty fascinating.