Journalists Imprisoned in North Korea

Journalists imprisoned

Facing an upcoming trip abroad I remember being told by my professors that we must be respectful of our host country because we will be subject to their laws.  For some reason this had a hard time sinking in for me.  Perhaps it is a hidden sign of my American sense of entitlement, but I couldn't imagine a country being able to hold me for some insignificant act that they consider illegal.  I subconsciously feel sure some sort of negotiations could take place, and yet here I am faced with this article where two women journalists have been charged with 12 years hard labor in North Korea. When it sinks in that North Korea can do that, it's a terrifying thought.  As they explain that many people die within their first 3 years in this gulag, when they share that one of the women were talking to her husband--a husband she will not see for 12 years?--I realize I somehow see the Supreme Court as ruling over the world rather than the United States.  But no, and that makes me wonder if my idea of living in peaceful surroundings is only a thin veneer?  Perhaps we are not so invincible as we seem to believe.  Perhaps we should stop living in our precariously thin protective bubble and start being involved in this tumultuous world.  Or at least start caring.  I should start caring.