Article or Video

Article Review
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In the article, Sang-Hun gives an account of why a Japanese man was expelled from North Korea. The Japanese man, Tomoyuki Sugimoto, had traveled to North Korea on a tourist Visa only to be arrested on what the author considers flimsy grounds (Sang-Hun, 2018). Sugimoto was arrested after shooting footage of a military facility in Nampo. Although North Korean prohibits filming of military facilities, the nation has had numerous scuffles with Japan due to the abductee issue. North Korea has been detaining and even jailing Japanese who have committed crimes against humanity or the state. However, North Korea releases some of the detainees when a high ranking state officer from Japan visits the country. There are ongoing talks between the two neighboring nations with the primary motive of improving ties.
Crime and severity of a criminal offense vary from one nation. I chose the article because I wanted to understand the variation of crime in various countries around the world. North Korea has been in numerous scuffles with neighboring nations of Japan and South Korea, and my attention was drawn onto how the nation handle foreigners who are accused of committing an offense (Sang-Hun, 2018. In the discussion of International Variations of Crime in Chapter 3, it dawned on me that the severity of a given criminal act varies from one nation to another (Hagan, 2010). Unlike nations such as Switzerland, countries such as North Korea have very severe penalties for lawbreakers.

Many countries have restrictions regarding specific areas, facilities that neither foreigners nor citizens are allowed to capture either photo or video footages. A typical example is a military facility, and this can be attributed to the fact that such acts may jeopardize national security (Sang-Hun, 2018. However, North Korea should consider engaging in talks with its neighboring nations to solve the abductee issue. North Korea has on numerous occasions detained foreigners because they defied the rule of law on very flimsy grounds.
In a nutshell, the class teachings have helped me understand how crime and the severity of criminal offenses vary from one nation to another. While nations such as North Korea are very strict regarding what they consider a criminal offense, some countries such as Switzerland are very lenient. Hagan (2010) argues it is challenging to compare crime rate between various nations due to the disparity in culture and approach of handling crime.
References
Hagan, F. E. (2010). Introduction to Criminology: Theories, methods, and criminal behavior. Sage.
Sang-Hun, C. (2018). North Korea to Expel Japanese Tourist Accused of Crime. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/26/world/asia/north-korea-japanese-tourist.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FCrime%20and%20Criminals