North Korea announced on Monday that it is preparing to charge two American tourists, saying investigators have evidence and testimony that they were “perpetrating hostile acts” after entering the country. That really could mean anything, but previous reports have suggested that 24-year-old Matthew Todd Miller tore up his tourist visa at the airport and shouted that he wanted to seek asylum, while 56-year-old Jeffrey Edward Fowle was accused of leaving a Bible in a hotel room (his family denies he was on a church mission). They join a third American, Kenneth Bae, who was detained in 2012 and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. The State Department recently updated its travel warning, noting that Americans shouldn’t “assume that joining a group tour or use of a tour guide will prevent your arrest or detention by North Korean authorities.” As with most things, traveling to North Korea is more dangerous than Dennis Rodman makes it look.
