S9, Chapter 2: The Fifth Floor

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Well, my next guest is an
American doctor and travel blogger who did a

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similar tour of North Korea several years
before mister Womba. He stayed in the

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same hotel and broke the strict rules
governing tourists behavior to explore the hotel's secret

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fifth floor. Or Calvin soun joined
me. Now tell us more about this

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hotel and this secretive fifth floor.
Because you did venture there, what did

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you find? Tapes from the Dark
Side contains descriptions of violence and sexuality.

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Listener discretion is advised. The fifth
floor of the Yengacteau Hotel the subject of

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much rumor speculation. If you're in
a guest elevator, you won't see it

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on a list of floor, but
yet it undoubtedly exists. In two eleven,

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four years before Otto Warmbier's trip to
North Korea was even a thought,

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a travel blogger named Calvin's son and
a handful of members of his tour group

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snuck onto the forbidden fifth floor of
the Angato hotel and they videotaped their experience.

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Calvin's group was there for five nights, and just like Otto, he

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was also traveling with the Young Pioneer's
tour group. They were busy during their

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days with the scheduled supervised sightseeing,
but one night, their last night after

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a particularly long day of touring,
the group was hanging out on the open

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rooftop of the forty seven story building. As the story goes, they made

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their way down to the revolving restaurant
one floor below, and then hopped on

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an elevator. Calvin says that was
when he realized the number five was conspicuously

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missing from the floor number list,
and then someone said, quote, we

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should check out the fifth floor and
see if they skip it because they're superstitious,

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or if it really exists. In
his blog, Calvin notes quote,

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in twenty eleven, no Taurus had
ever been detained in the DPRK. The

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weight of what we were doing didn't
occur to us obviously. Now on the

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Young Pioneers Tour website they make it
abundantly clear that the fifth floor is strictly

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off limits for taurusts. But that
warning didn't exist in two and eleven,

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and it didn't exist when Otto later
made his visit in twenty sixteen. We

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were not brief to stay away from
the fifth floor at any stage by the

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guides. It just wasn't mentioned,
says Calvin. One of their fellow travelers

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in that group us some interesting logic
to try and persuade the group member is

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that what they were about to do
was safe. He said, the fifth

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floor technically doesn't exist, so we
can't get in trouble for being there,

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and that was that. Convinced by
some half baked logic, but also motivated

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by an adventurer spirit, Calvin and
his fellow group members made their minds up

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to take the forbidden journey to the
fifth floor. The elevator let them out

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on the fourth floor, because as
we said before, there is no fifth

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floor button, and then they found
their way to a stairway at the back

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of the hotel that one of the
members heard rumors would take them to the

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secret floor, nestled between four and
six. Calvin said that while the mood

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was outwardly jovial, they were all
on edge and then quote one of the

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guys who was walking ahead in the
corridor ran back and said, no,

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not this way, I heard screaming. Callvin says he didn't hear the screaming,

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but and his group were unnerved.
They decided to change directions and head

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to the sixth floor and take a
different stairwell and walk down to the fifth

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floor from that floor. In just
a few short moments later, they were

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face to face with the entryway to
the fifth floor. Someone tugged on the

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door handled to see if it was
locked, and to their surprise, they

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found it wasn't. This was the
moment, it was now or never.

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Those who had their cameras took them
out and they stepped inside. Calvin says

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that the first thing that you noticed
right away was the low ceilings. He

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says they were half of that of
other floors. This truly felt like a

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non existent floor built in the crawl
space between two actual floors. The taller

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members of the group had to buckle
their knees to give the necessary head room,

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and then the excited but also anxious
groups spread out just a little bit

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and began to explore. In the
footage from Calvin's camera, you can hear

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his footsteps and his hand shakily holding
the camera. The picture is mostly out

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of focus. It's dark, fluorescent
light overhead and the almost deafening sound of

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the ringing of some kind of transformer
or generator. Calvin cautiously walks the length

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of the dimly lit concrete hall.
The layout doesn't appear to be much different

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from your normal hotel corridor. Doors
branch off on either side of the hallway

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to other rooms. Most appear locked, but one is open. There's a

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pair of shoes outside, but when
the peaks inside, there's no one there.

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Again from Calvin, there was one
room that had lights coming from inside,

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and we saw security cameras, TV
screens that seemed to show the inside

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of bedrooms, and what looked like
surveillance equipment. I now began to think

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that this floor was where the hotel
staff reportedly kept equipment to survey guests.

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While the layout might have been similar
to the hotel corridors on other floors,

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the decorations and the lighting are starkly
different. As I said before, there's

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only one fluorescent light overhead, long
shadows cast on the outskirts of the walls.

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The same walls that are covered top
to bottom with bright, seemingly hand

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painted anti American and anti Japanese propaganda
images and phrases. All are written in

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Korean. One caption translated reads,
this bomb is the product of the Americans.

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Every product of the Americans. Is
our enemy, get revenge a thousand

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hundred times against them? And then
a moment that surely sent a shock through

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the hearts of everyone present on that
floor, A strange man appeared almost out

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of nowhere. He was Korean in
appearance, and he quickly approached the group.

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Lost he calmly asked in English.
Someone in the group nods sheepishly,

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and the man nods back and points
them to the stairs. Most surprising of

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all might be the man's demeanor.
Calvin said that he didn't appear angry or

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really even agitated. The group members
did return to their respective bedrooms to reflect

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on what they had seen to process
the adrenaline rush. The consensus seemed to

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be that they didn't feel threatened or
even put off by the encounter with the

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hotel staff, and in a baffling
move, handful of group members decided to

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venture again back to the forbidden floor
the same night. According to the blog,

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it's not entirely clear whether Calvin was
one of these, but we do

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have a few details from whoever did
decide to venture back to the fifth floor.

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One group member says that during the
second exploration, they opened a door

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to find nothing but a brick wall
behind it, and another found a hidden

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door with stairs to another floor that
also appeared like a secret floor quote there

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was a floor within a floor.
The more the group members explored the mysteries

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of the fifth floor, the more
entrapped by its secrets they became. We

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have video of yet another wall mural. It's of a bloody sword, a

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chain, prison bars, and again
in Korean, the quote prepare to thoroughly

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destroy the invader, and then a
list of those things that the Japanese quote

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took from the Koreans during their occupation, which allegedly included quote two hundred thousand

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sex slaves and the lives of one
million Koreans. Another painting that we see

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is less violent and admittedly a bit
random. It's an early nineteen eighties model

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computer and a phrase heralding the twenty
first century as the age of technology.

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And then yet again, a different
hotel official approached the group members and once

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again politely asked them to return to
the rooms, which they did. If

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the second time wasn't pressing faith,
they surely were on their third visit to

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the fifth floor. That's right,
some of the group members returned yet again,

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and again It's unclear whether Calvin was
in this group, but whoever did

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visit, they were even more blase
during this third round. On Calvin's blog,

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we read that two of the members
wandered off during this excursion for a

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makeout session, and then yet again
a guard appeared in pointing them back to

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their rooms. Calvin says, quote, we were all in our twenties.

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We were foolish, We were very
naive. The experience seemed exciting and innocent,

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and everything that's happened since then,
knowing what I know now, I

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would not have done it. Calvin
Sun made an extremely brief appearance on the

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BBC to discuss his exploration of the
fifth floor of the Angacto Hotel. This

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was in twenty eighteen, and it's
clear that this segment was a larger part

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of their coverage on Auto Warm Beer, and they only devoted a few brief

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minutes to interview in Calvin, which
is a shame because the segment ends before

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it ever really begins. But I'd
like for you to hear it. So

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here it is live from New York. Calvin, welcome to you, Thanks

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very much for being with us here
on BBC World News tell Us more about

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this hotel and the secretive fifth floor, because you did venture that, what

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did you find the hotel? Thank
you, first of all, thank you

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for having me. The hotel in
itself was pretty much informed to us as

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a free ground to explore as long
as we didn't leave the island of the

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hotel was situated in. It's kind
of think of like a Roosevelt Island in

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New York City, where it was
an island off in the river and Pyongyang,

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and we had to cross a bridge
to get to our hotel, and

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it's the only hotel that all tourists
stay at at the time, And as

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long as we didn't leave the island, there was no rules and where we

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could and could not explore. And
the hotel itself was built as a five

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star hotel, and generally, I
think it's relative to the other options in

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the area, if you will.
For us, it was five stars of

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Pyongyang, maybe three to four stars
for a relative to any other hotel that

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we've been to. It was functional
and otherwise a normal hotel with very high

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ceiling floors until we stumbled upon inadvertently
the floor than we are going to be

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talking about. To tell us more
about this fifth floor. Then why did

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you go there? Why was it
a secret, and what did you find?

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It was something that a lot of
travelers before me had stumbled upon in

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the past. It was become had
become somewhat of an urban legend that I

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wasn't aware of when I went for
the first time. It was talked about

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a few times, mentioned here and
there during the trip by my fellow travelers

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who had done their research for me. Didn't really think much of it until

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our last night there, and it
was just brought up as a suggestion to

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see if it really does exists by
one of my co travelers, and then

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we decided to want to the hotel
first. The rest of the hotel that

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we didn't had time to explore during
the trip, and that included the basement.

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It has his own casino, ironically, has a bowling alley, a

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bar which we went to every night
because our guides took us there, a

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revolving rooftop restaurant, multiple banquet halls. And then once that was done and

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we explored Florida floorid floor, we
found that there was an open door where

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the fifth floor is supposed to be, so in the elevator's skip the fifth

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floor. On the buttons, it
goes from four to six, and so

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we decided to wander there, and
when saw the door was open, we

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decided to walk on in, and
over the course of the evening we explored

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more and more of it, even
when there were staff there that found us

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and merely politely directed us back to
our rooms, thinking that we were lost.

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Calvin, I just want to win
Thrup chicks. We haven't got much

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time left, I'm sure. I
just want to get in a quick question

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before we went out of time.
As you left the hotel and the rest

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of your tour, worst stop because
one of you actually did take something from

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the hotel, didn't you what you've
learned now about what happened to Otto Warmba,

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He took something from that hotel and
tragically he lost his life because of

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it, didn't he? Do you
think now looking back to your experiences at

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the hotel and what could have happened? Well, back in twenty eleven,

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nothing had happened to any tourist in
North Korea. The statistics of getting hit

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by a car back home was higher
because tourists were free to go in.

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I'm so sorry we are out of
time. I must leave it that hopefully

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we will get more from you another
time. Stay with us here on BBC.

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It's clear now that Calvin and his
group did not meet the same fat

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as Otto Warrenbier, but that doesn't
mean they'd be getting out of this situation

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without a confrontation with the North Korean
government that nearly ended in its own tragedy.

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According to Calvin, the last night, after playing chicken with the fifth

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Floor until five am, they finally
called it quits and returned to their rooms.

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The bus taking them to the airport
was arriving in only two short hours

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at seven am. They hurriedly packed
their belongings, rested their eyes for no

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more than a few moments, and
then groggily boarded the bus to Pyongyang Internet

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National Airport. As the members of
the group were settling in for the bus

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ride, perhaps angling a pillow against
the window to attempt a few minutes of

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shut eye, they had no idea
that in a few short moments, their

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freedom and indeed their very lives,
would hang in the balance. Tapes from

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the Dark Side is able to exist
because of the generosity of people like you.

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Join us today on patreon dot com slash

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tapes from the Dark Side. Suddenly, employees from the hotel boarded the bus

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and demanded everyone stand and exit the
vehicle. A cold shill ran down the

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backs of those who had repeatedly ventured
onto the fifth floor. Was this karma

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had their luck finally and dry?
One of the employees announced that they knew

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of what one member the group had
done, and it would be most prudent

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to confess their crime. Immediately,
the group was silent. A North Korean

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guard spoke up. She said that
the embroidered towels from one of the private

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rooms of the Angacto Hotel had been
stolen, and if the group members wanted

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to return to their respective home safely
and without incident, these would need to

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be returned. Still, no one
said a word. The Young Pioneers tour

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guide approached the Korean officials and they
spoke in hushed whispers. Calvin and his

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peers were not sure if this was
a bad day dream or reality, but

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as luck would have it, the
Young Pioneers tour guides had struck a deal

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with the Korean officials, and this
time the officials announced loudly their instructions.

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They said they would turn their backs, which would allow the offender to anonymously

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return the towels, thus resolving the
situation. Now, in his recounting of

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the tail, Calvin doesn't identify who
stole the towels, only that as soon

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as the guards turned back around to
face the group, the towels have been

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placed neatly at their feet. A
stroke of grace and the incident was peacefully

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resolved. The group members boarded the
bus and made their way to the airport.

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Their passports were all stamped, and
the very next day, Calvin Soun

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was in class. It was the
first day of his second year of med

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school, and until the Auto Warmbier
story broke, Calvin barely gave a second

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thought to his excursion on the fifth
floor the Angata Hotel. I want to

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give credit for most of that story
to Mega Mohan of the BBC. You

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can follow her on Twitter at megham
Ohan. That's m eg h am oh

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a n I'll put her Twitter link
in the show notes as well, and

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also of course to Calvin's Sun and
his blog Monsoon Diaries dot com. Now

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we all know that Otto Warrenbier would
not be so lucky. On the morning

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of January two, twenty sixteen,
his trip was coming to an end,

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and just like Calvin, Otto and
his group awoke early to catch the bus

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to the Pyongyang International Airport. There
was no incident on the bus ride in

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Auto's trip, but when they arrived
at the airport and as they were standing

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in line for the border patrol,
Auto's roommate Danny Gratton describes how things took

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a dramatic turn for the worse at
the airport's wean also with the last two

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through the security and he has simply
had a tap on the shoulder. Two

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gods took him away and I sort
of laughingly said to him, well,

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that's the last we'll ever see of
you. And because we got on so

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well also say drowns and just chuckles
at me. Danny says that Auto didn't

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resist, he didn't look scared.
He just sort of half smiled and followed

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the guards who led him through a
wooden door beside the check in area.

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No one knew it at the time, but from this moment Otto's fate was

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sealed when Otto's parents, Cindy and
Fred Warrenbier, didn't hear from their son.

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They began to worry, and when
they got in touch with the Young

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Pioneers tour group, they learned that
their worst fears had become a reality.

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Otto was being detained in North Korea
for unexplained reasons, and then the waiting

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game. Otto's family, as well
as the rest of the country, waited

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with bated breath for some kind of
explanation for why Auto had been detained.

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North Korea has a state run news
agency. It's called the Korean Central News

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Agency or casey NA. It's much
different than say and in the USA,

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which is not state run but rather
receives a small portion of its funding from

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the government. In the case NA, all reports are specifically crafted by the

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government themselves. It's not so much
news but an extreme form of propaganda.

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On January twenty third, about three
weeks after Auto had been detained, the

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case NA announced that Auto Warrenbier was
being detained for quote a hostile act against

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the state. That's all they said. They didn't specify what the hostile act

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was, and for nearly another month
Auto's parents would continue to wait. The

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00:20:40.640 --> 00:20:45.000
only news during that time was that
a young Pioneer spokesperson had talked with the

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00:20:45.039 --> 00:20:51.519
Reuters newsgroup and advised that there had
been some kind of incident in the Angato

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hotel during Auto's visit. And then, suddenly, on a seemingly random Monday

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morning, February twenty nine, sixteen, in fact a leap year day,

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00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:08.079
Otto Warrembier made his first public appearance
since his capture. In this video,

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you'll hear Auto confess to attempting to
steal a propaganda poster. The North Korean

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government will claim to have a video
of him on the fifth floor removing the

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poster from the wall. We'll review
that video later in detail, but just

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know that it's so grainy that he
can't make out the face of the person

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00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:32.640
in the video, and so there's
really no way to tell if it's Auto.

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You'll also hear Auto claim that he
was recruited for this mission by the

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00:21:37.680 --> 00:21:42.839
CIA, who was operating in a
confidential partnership with both a small Methodist church

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in Otto's hometown of Wyoming, Ohio, and with the z Society at the

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University of Virginia, where Auto attended
college. We'll also examine the validity of

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these claims, or rather the lack
thereof, But for now, let's watch

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this confession and together. It's about
thirty minutes in length and all interrupt only

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00:22:03.640 --> 00:22:10.279
when necessary to provide contexts or clarity. The video begins with a wide shot

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of what looks like a well dressed
hotel style conference room with a long wooden

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00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.000
desk and microphone placed at the front. The room is packed with maybe a

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hundred or so well dressed Korean people
in suits. Most of them are seated,

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00:22:25.160 --> 00:22:30.759
except for a handful of videographers and
photographers. They sit in a U

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00:22:30.880 --> 00:22:36.039
shaped wooden desk that tracks around the
edge of the outside of the room,

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and watch as Auto is led into
the room by two guards. His head

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is down. He wears a gray
suit and shuffles his legs and a solemn

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walk. He's not handcuffed, but
grasps a stack of papers in his hand.

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We will learn these are the words
of his written confession, many of

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them written for him. He takes
his seat at the elevated desk at the

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front of the room, where in
moments he will speak to the crowd above

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him. Hanging two portraits the father
and son of the Korean fascist state,

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Kim Il's Song and Kim Jong Ill. Before Auto's confession officially begins, a

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00:23:14.559 --> 00:23:18.920
Korean official sitting next to him briefly
sets the scene. I'll provide a spoken

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00:23:18.960 --> 00:23:30.119
translation since the video that I found
does not have one. I'm gonna getting

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00:23:32.240 --> 00:23:36.799
to put in. We now begin
an interview at the request of Otto Frederick

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00:23:36.880 --> 00:23:45.079
Warren Beier, students at the University
of Virginia. Was always want there who

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00:23:45.160 --> 00:23:53.720
was arrested for committing anti DPRK hostile
acts. Always know Warren Beer will speak.

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00:23:56.440 --> 00:24:02.039
At this point, Auto stands facing
the crowd and takes a deep bow.

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00:24:02.599 --> 00:24:14.519
He then sits again. First,
I would like to thank everyone for

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00:24:14.559 --> 00:24:22.960
coming to the press confidence that I'm
eagerly requested to have here. Otto warm

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00:24:23.039 --> 00:24:41.160
Beer's entire confession on the next episode
of Tapes from the Dark Side. I'm

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00:24:41.200 --> 00:24:45.119
tz Borden and I've been your host
today. If you like what we do

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00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:49.160
on this show, this kind of
raw, in depth, investigative style of

280
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true crime, then please consider supporting
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you to our lead writer this season, Carissa Collins. Thank you to twenty

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six hundred who has allowed us to
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Thank you to Augusta Trevororum for original
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follow us on Instagram, Twitter,
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in the show notes, and remember, until next time, try to enjoy the daylight