Provoking North Korea - a dumb idea

North Korea telling the "truth" about the attempted suicide of a US citizen in one of their prisons:

"Driven by his strong guilty conscience, disappointment and despair at the US government that has not taken any measure for his freedom, he attempted to commit suicide," the North's KCNA news agency said.

"He is now given first-aid treatment at a hospital."

Hmmm. Now, I'm not saying that a totalitarian dictatorship might tell self-serving lies, but I'm not so sure that he attempted to commit suicide because of guilt and despair at the US government. I'd imagine that the sentence of eight years of hard labour for the crime of entering the country is probably more of a motivating factor. Still, the North Korean government is responding with customary restraint; no chance of freedom for this chap, but rather "harsher punishment".

However, as much as I have sympathy for Gomes' plight, after all, he is probably living a nightmare each and every day at the moment, I do have to say that he was pretty dumb to provoke North Korea in the first place. That government has no respect for human rights of human life whatsoever; they were never going to respond well to Gomes' actions. And as a result, I do think that you have to be pretty dumb to provoke North Korea. It is a bit like prodding a rabid wolf in the bollocks with a big stick. At some point, said wolf is going to get pissed off. And when it does so, it is going to bite your fucking face off.