Matthew Todd Miller | |
---|---|
Born | Bakersfield, California U.S. | August 26, 1989
Occupation | English teacher |
Detainment | |
Country | North Korea |
Detained | April 10, 2014 |
Released | November 8, 2014 |
Days in detention | 212 |
Sentence | Six years of hard labor [1] |
Likely reason for detention | Acts hostile to the DPRK while entering under the guise of a tourist. [2] |
Matthew Todd Miller (born August 26, 1989) [3] is a U.S. citizen who was detained in North Korea (DPRK) after traveling there, tearing up his tourist visa, and requesting political asylum. He refused to be sent back, intending to get arrested to "have a face-to-face with North Koreans to answer [his] personal questions". [2]
He was sentenced to six years of hard labor on September 14, 2014, for committing "acts hostile to the DPRK while entering under the guise of a tourist." [1] He was released, along with Kenneth Bae, on November 8, 2014.
Matthew Todd Miller was raised in Bakersfield, California. He is the youngest of four sons of Bill and K.C. Miller, both petroleum engineers, and is a 2008 graduate of Bakersfield High School. [3] [4] The Associated Press reported that Miller went to South Korea in 2010 to visit one of his brothers, an F-35 test pilot, who was stationed there at the time with the United States Air Force. [5] Miller took a job teaching English and had learned some Korean in the process. [4]
According to North Korean state-run media, Miller entered North Korea alone on April 10, 2014, on a tourist visa arranged by US-based tour operator Uri Tours. [6] Initial reports said that he tore up the visa upon arrival at the airport and declared his intent to seek political asylum. He was arrested for "unruly behaviour". [7]
Speaking from an undisclosed location in North Korea on August 1, 2014, Miller was permitted to give interviews to two American news organizations. He told reporters that he was being treated well while in custody, though the Associated Press noted the possibility that his comments may have been coerced. He stated he was expecting to be tried imminently, and asked the United States government to send an envoy to intervene on his behalf. [4]
Miller was charged under Article 64 of the North Korean criminal code concerning acts of espionage, and was put on trial on September 14, 2014. He was swiftly convicted and sentenced to six years of hard labor (euphemistically termed "labor re-education") for committing "hostile acts". [8] Miller had no lawyer during the 90-minute hearing, described as a "show trial" by The Washington Post , and authorities indicated that there was no possibility of appeal. [1]
Although earlier reports indicated that Miller sought political asylum in North Korea, the prosecution argued that this was a ruse intended to disguise Miller's real intention of committing espionage. According to the court, Miller admitted to having the "wild ambition" of experiencing conditions in prison to secretly investigate and expose the country's dim human rights situation. [9] [10] Miller later revealed that he was curious about the country and simply wanted to talk to North Korean people and ask them questions beyond what he could as a tourist. According to Miller, he achieved his goal while imprisoned. Nevertheless, Miller says when he issued an apology as part of the court process, he did so with sincerity. [5]
On November 8, 2014, Miller was released after eight months in North Korea, and allowed to leave along with one additional American prisoner, Kenneth Bae, thanks to an intervention by James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence. [11] [12]
After returning to the U.S., Miller told reporters he went to North Korea intending to get arrested, stating that "My main fear was that they would not arrest me when I arrived". Initially North Korean authorities had refused to arrest him and sought to return him on the next flight, but Miller refused. Miller had brought a notebook into North Korea incorrectly claiming he was a computer hacker involved with WikiLeaks and having attempted to access files at U.S. military bases in South Korea. [2] [5] He later assessed that this material was never taken seriously by the North Korean authorities, prompting them to ask him the real reasons behind his visit. [5]
Relations between North Korea and the United States have been historically hostile. The two countries have no formal diplomatic relations. Instead, they have adopted an indirect diplomatic arrangement using neutral intermediaries. The Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang is the US protecting power and provides limited consular services to U.S. citizens. North Korea, officially the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), does not have an embassy in Washington, DC, but is represented in the United States through its mission to the United Nations in New York City which serves as North Korea's de facto embassy.
The human rights record of North Korea is often considered to be among the worst in the world and has been globally condemned, with the United Nations and groups such as Human Rights Watch having condemned it. Amnesty International considers North Korea to have no contemporary parallel with respect to violations of liberty.
Human rights in South Korea are codified in the Constitution of the Republic of Korea, which compiles the legal rights of its citizens. These rights are protected by the Constitution and include amendments and national referendum. These rights have evolved significantly from the days of military dictatorship to the current state as a constitutional democracy with free and fair elections for the presidency and the members of the National Assembly.
Tourism in North Korea is tightly controlled by the North Korean government. All tourism is organized by one of several state-owned tourism bureaus, including Korea International Travel Company (KITC), Korean International Sports Travel company (KISTC), Korean International Taekwondo Tourism Company (KITTC) and Korean International Youth Travel Company (KIYTC). The majority of tourists are Chinese nationals: one 2019 estimate indicated that up to 120,000 Chinese tourists had visited North Korea in the previous year, compared to fewer than 5,000 from Western countries.
On March 17, 2009, North Korean soldiers detained two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were working for the U.S.-based independent television station Current TV, after they crossed into North Korea from China without a visa. They were found guilty of illegal entry and sentenced to twelve years' hard labor in June 2009. The North Korean leader Kim Jong Il pardoned the two on August 5, 2009, the day after the former U.S. president Bill Clinton arrived in the country on a publicly unannounced visit.
Aijalon Mahli Gomes was an American teacher who was detained in North Korea for illegally entering the country via China on January 25, 2010. On August 27, 2010, it was announced that former U.S. president Jimmy Carter had secured Gomes's release. In May 2015, Gomes published an autobiography, Violence and Humanity. In November 2017, he was found burned to death in what was ruled a suicide.
Choe Chang-ik was a Korean politician in the Japanese colonial era. He was a member of the Korean independence movement. He was also known by the names Choe Chang-sok, Choe Chang-sun, Choe Tong-u, and Ri Kon-u.
Kenneth Bae is a South Korean-born American Evangelical Christian missionary. Convicted by North Korea on charges of planning to overthrow the government, he was sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment in April 2013. Bae was released on November 8, 2014, along with fellow American Matthew Todd Miller.
Crime is present in various forms in North Korea, officially known as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Merrill Edward Newman was a businessman and former United States Army officer. In 2013, he was arrested in North Korea and released 42 days later.
Jeffrey Edward Fowle is a U.S. citizen who was detained by North Korean authorities in May 2014 after intentionally leaving a Bible in the restroom of the Chongjin Sailor's Club, with full knowledge of violating the local law, which enforces severe religious repressions in the country.
The following lists events that happened in 2014 in North Korea.
The following lists events that happened during 2007 in Cambodia.
Hyeon Soo Lim is a Canadian pastor of the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Mississauga. He is a South Korean-born Canadian citizen. He was operating humanitarian efforts in North Korea providing tens of millions of dollars' worth of aid before disappearing in February 2015. The DPRK had arrested him and in December 2015, Lim was sentenced to life with hard labour for crimes against the North Korean regime.
Kim Dong Chul is a Korean-American businessman who was imprisoned by the government of North Korea (DPRK) in October 2015 and sentenced to 10 years of hard labor for espionage. Following his release, Kim has admitted to working with the South Korea's National Intelligence Service and the United States' Central Intelligence Agency.
Otto Frederick Warmbier was an American college student who was imprisoned in North Korea in 2016 on a charge of subversion. In June 2017, he was released by North Korea in a vegetative state and died soon after his parents requested his feeding tube be removed.
The Central Court is the supreme court and the highest organ in the judiciary of North Korea.
Michael Peter Todd Spavor is a Canadian consultant who has worked extensively in North Korea. He is the director and founding member of Paektu Cultural Exchange, a NGO that facilitates sports, cultural, tourism and business exchanges involving North Korea.
Jong Kyong-thaek is a North Korean politician. He served as the Minister of State Security from 2018 to 2022, a member of the Central Military Commission of the Workers' Party of Korea (WPK), an alternate member of the Politburo of the WPK, and a member of the State Affairs Commission of North Korea.