Ex-U.S. detainee says he traveled to N. Korea to get arrested

By KH디지털2

Published : Nov. 22, 2014 - 11:24

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WASHINGTON-- Matthew Todd Miller, one of two Americans released from North Korea earlier this month, said he traveled to the communist nation with the purpose of getting arrested so that he could interact more with ordinary people in the North.

That's why he damaged his tourist visa during the flight to Pyongyang, he said in an interview with the NK News website. It proved more difficult than he thought to get arrested there because North Korean authorities urged him to leave, but he refused and was detained, he said.

"I achieved my personal goal of seeing more of North Korea. I wanted to connect with the people," he told NK News. "I was not there to give secret information or anything like that. I just wanted to speak to an ordinary North Korean person about normal things."

Miller was detained in April and sentenced in September to six years of hard labor for committing "hostile" acts. He was freed early this month, along with another U.S. detainee, Kenneth Bae, after U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper made a secret trip to Pyongyang.

Miller said he tried hard to get arrested, including writing fake things in a notebook, such as schemes to remove the American military from South Korea and to access files from a U.S. military base in South Korea. But the North Koreans instantly knew the notes were concocted.

"My main fear was that they would not arrest me when I arrived," he told NK News. "They wanted me to leave. The very first night they said, 'We want you to leave on the next flight.' But I refused. I just did not leave."

He stressed that his actions had no religious or political motivations, and were fueled instead by a personal "curiosity and concern." He said he "spent a good five months having many conversations with various people."

He also denied speculation that he is mentally ill.

"Everything is good,” he said. "I guess the one thing I would say is that my life is more distant from society than most people.

I don't like to meet people in public." (Yonhap)

Ex-U.S. detainee says he traveled to N. Korea to get arrested

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