It is reported that on February 29th, 20 15, Warmbier, an American junior aged 2/kloc-0, arrived in North Korea for a four-day and three-night trip. Warmbier, who first arrived in North Korea, was in a good mood. A video posted by his brother on YouTube a few days ago showed that Warmbier and his colleagues threw snowballs at the camera excitedly and laughed happily.
Warmbier went to North Korea under the organization of the Young Pioneers Tour Group.
His death also pushed the travel agency to the forefront.
Earlier, Youth Pioneer Travel Agency issued a statement on Facebook, expressing condolences to Warmbier's family. "No tourists have had such a tragic ending after being detained by North Korea before, and we have been trying to stop this result."
The statement said that the travel agency's repeated requests to visit Warmbier or contact anyone who knew about his situation were rejected, and the North Korean side always comforted that Warmbier was fine. "Considering these facts and this tragic result, we decided not to organize American citizens to travel to North Korea."
But this did not quell the anger of Warmbier's relatives.
His father also strongly condemned travel agencies, saying that North Korea often used such travel agencies to "lure" Americans to North Korea and then imprisoned them.
In fact, Youth Pioneer Travel Agency was founded by Gareth Johnson, an Englishman.
According to Johnson, he first traveled to North Korea 10 years ago, and "this country attracted me instantly". So in 2008, he founded this travel agency, focusing on traveling to the DPRK, "trying to combine my hobby of traveling with my new love for Korean culture."
According to the information of the travel agency in official website, the travel agency currently has 265,438+0 partners and employees (tour guides) from Britain, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and other countries, including 4 from China.
It is understood that on the famous foreign travel review website Catway Eagle, Youth Pioneer Travel Agency has received 5 13 comments, which is almost "all five-star praise".
After the Warmbier incident, North Korea is still trying to attract more western tourists. On June 15, with the support of the World Tourism Organization, North Korea held its first tourism promotion meeting in Spain. At the promotion meeting held by the DPRK Embassy in Madrid, the Director-General of the World Tourism Organization, Jordanian Refay, encouraged more Spaniards and Europeans to travel to the DPRK.