They do. They welcome the servicemen and all others. What most Americans or even Westerners in general don’t realize is for the Vietnamese, that was three wars ago! Ancient history. They’ve fought China and Cambodia since, although neither of those were the knockdown, drawn-out struggle of what they term the American War. You can take Vietnam War themes, but from what I can tell, there’s not much left of the old battle sites. It’s not like Gettysburg or places like that, you pretty much have to take the guide’s word for it that a battle took place here. Everything was dismantled ages ago. If you weren’t a former servicemen who took part, the tours would have almost no meaning for you.
I may have missed it in this thread, but BBC was speculating this American in North Korea might have been a case of mistaken identity. They said there was apparently another soldier with the exact same name serving back in Korean War, and he may really have been guilty of the charges levied against this guy.
I cannot understand why anybody tempts fate like this. There are all kinds of these incidents…why people do this is a mystery. Like the ex-FBI guy (who is Jewish) going into Iran-or the hikers who just HAD to see a waterfall near the Iran border.
Sorta like entering the lion cage at the zoo-might be fun, might be your last.
Why? I’m American and have been to the DPRK as a tourist on a tour. The company I went with has a long reputation there and is not the one used by the Vet in the recent case. I was there 5 days and had a great time. Of course I had nothing against the DPRK, did not fight them in any war and didn’t cause a scene at any of their sacred places.
One important distinction between visiting North Korea and visiting someplace like Japan or Vietnam is that the Korean war never actually ended. We’ve had a prolonged cease-fire, that’s it. We’ve made peace with Japan and Vietnam, we haven’t with North Korea.
We act like the war is over - for the North Koreans it is not, it is an active, on-going conflict that the government milks to its own advantage. From their viewpoint, the American veteran is still an enemy combatant.