Sympathy is in short supply

[vaskidmark]

Glenn Reynolds at InstaPudit posts I DON’T MEAN TO SOUND UNSYMPATHETIC, but what kind of chump defects to North Korea? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17767626

I truely feel sorry for Mr. Oh, even though he brought it upon himself.  Carrying that kind of guilt around has got to be painful.

stay safe.

[makattak]

I have a lot of sympathy from that story. His wife and daughters didn't deserve the horrid fate he gave them.

I do have problems mustering sympathy for Mr. Oh for being so foolish and reckless with his family's well-being.

[HankB]

What a wretched SOB the guy is. 

I'll save my sympathy for the wife and daughters he dragged off to and - ultimately - abandoned in North Korea.

[BryanP]

I feel bad for his family.  Screw him.

[TechMan]

Rotting in hell is to good for that SOB.

[SADShooter]

Wanna make a statement? Do it on your own, and let others speak for themselves. Selfish jerk.

[Scout26]

Isn't Socialism wonderful !!!!

[RevDisk]

Shin said they would have to pay the price for his mistakes - he could not entrap others.

His wife sounds like an excellent human being. The world is a lesser place with her anonymous death in some communist death camp for being a good person, with more courage than any of the people responsible for killing her.

Oh Kil-nam damned himself with his ideological beliefs. According to the article, he got a "PhD in Germany on a Marxist economist". He knew better. He knew the inherent nature of Marxist countries, because economics are the foundation of EVERY country.

I have sympathy for his wife and kids. I like to think he would have sacrificed himself for them if he could. Realistically, there's no way the NK government would allow that. Yes, I know, who knows. The only way he can redeem himself TO himself is to educate as many people as possible about the realities of authoritarian governments, communist governments and North Korea in particular. His ideology put his wife and kids voluntarily in a death camp. No one knows if his ideology put anyone ELSE in one of those camps. He'll never pay off that moral debt. But if he is even remotely human, he will spend the rest of his life trying to make even a token payment.

[roo_ster]

His wife sounds like an excellent human being. The world is a lesser place with her anonymous death in some communist death camp for being a good person, with more courage than any of the people responsible for killing her.

Oh Kil-nam damned himself with his ideological beliefs. According to the article, he got a "PhD in Germany on a Marxist economist". He knew better. He knew the inherent nature of Marxist countries, because economics are the foundation of EVERY country.

I have sympathy for his wife and kids. I like to think he would have sacrificed himself for them if he could. Realistically, there's no way the NK government would allow that. Yes, I know, who knows. The only way he can redeem himself TO himself is to educate as many people as possible about the realities of authoritarian governments, communist governments and North Korea in particular. His ideology put his wife and kids voluntarily in a death camp. No one knows if his ideology put anyone ELSE in one of those camps. He'll never pay off that moral debt. But if he is even remotely human, he will spend the rest of his life trying to make even a token payment.

Playing stupid political & philosophical games with your own butt is one thing.  Inflicting them on your family is something else entirely. 

Lake of Fire for this SOB, for betraying his family.

[MicroBalrog]

The agents offered him an important job working as an economist for the North Korean government and promised to provide free treatment for his wife's hepatitis.

He was trying to save her.

But other than this.

"His life" was not ruined. Or rather, what has happened to him is terrible of course - but this isn't the story of a man losing his loved ones. It is the story of three innocent people perishing.  It's not about him, it's about his wife and daughters who were horribly killed in a death camp.

[Lee]

I'm curious as to why a seemingly professional couple could not get treatment for hepatitis in S. Korea or elsewhere. Sounds like BS to me.

[Perd Hapley]

And why would he expect a place like N.K. to hold cures for, well, anything? Was he watching too much Michael Moore?

[AJ Dual]

I'm curious as to why a seemingly professional couple could not get treatment for hepatitis in S. Korea or elsewhere. Sounds like BS to me.

Or why he believed the treatment she could get in N. Korea would be any better, medically, technically speaking, than what the South could offer. They don't even have electricity save for the monuments in Pongyang and the lights along the DMZ.

[lee n. field]

Glenn Reynolds at InstaPudit posts I DON’T MEAN TO SOUND UNSYMPATHETIC, but what kind of chump defects to North Korea?

There have been  American defectors.  Some servicemen, back in the 50s.

I truely feel sorry for Mr. Oh, even though he brought it upon himself.  Carrying that kind of guilt around has got to be painful.

He's probably found some way to deal with his feelings.  But not his guilt.

[vaskidmark]

There have been  American defectors.  Some servicemen, back in the 50s. ....

IIRC the majority of them were believed to have been "brainwashed".  A small number defected to avoid further combat, and an even smaller number were true idiologues.  I do not recall any of them bringing their families with them.

IIRC further, the servicemen who defected are all still under court martial conviction for desertion and liable for extended prison sentences if they are ever returned to military jurisdiction.  Not sure how "extended" a stay someone in their 70s could expect to endure.

stay safe.