North Korea Kidnapped American Student to Teach Kim Jong-un English

Mormon Missionary Kidnapped in China 12 Years Ago May Have Tutored Kim Jong-Un

by Aya Katz

Twelve years ago, David Louis Sneddon was a twenty-four year old BYU student from Nebraska and a Mormon Missionary in China.  A part-time employee of  Multiling Corporation,  Sneddon was studying Chinese at Beijing University when he went missing, while hiking at Tiger Leaping Gorge in Yunnan Province. The Chinese Police believed at the time that Sneddon had fallen to his death into the canyon on the Jin-sha River, a popular tourist spot.

The State Department accepted this at face value. But no body was ever found, and Sneddon’s family never gave up their search for him. Recently, David Sneddon was spotted in North Korea, and there is now reason to believe that he may have been kidnapped to serve as an English tutor to the country’s current dictator, Kim Jong-un.

In the video below from February of this year, Representative Chris Stewart, serving Utah’s second district,  explains why the theory that David Sneddon may have been kidnapped by agents from North Korea is plausible.

David Sneddon had served as a missionary to South Korea for two years prior to his disappearance in China, so he was fluent in Korean. The North Korean government has a long history of kidnapping foreigners to train their own foreign agents. Another American had just been released from North Korea prior to Sneddon’s disappearance, so the North Koreans needed a substitute. Since Yunnan Province in China is a place where Korean agents are known to operate, because many defectors from North Korea flee to that part of China, Sneddon’s disappearance there is consistent with an abduction to North Korea. However, the State Department declined to take cognizance of any of these facts.

On August 3o, 2016 a news report came out in the Japanese press saying that David Sneddon had been seen in North Korea. According to the report, Sneddon was working as a tutor in Pyongyang, and he was married with children. One of his former students was none other the Kim Jong-un. Is it possible that no willing tutors could be found? Teaching ESL is something many volunteers do. Why does North Korea need to kidnap English tutors, when there are so many to be had on the open market at very low wages?

If an American citizen was kidnapped and is being kept against his will in North Korea, what should the State Department do? Is this an occasion for diplomacy? It seems the situation is so embarrassing to the State Department that they are not yet willing to acknowledge it.  From a constitutional perspective, perhaps this is an occasion where a letter of marque and reprisal should be issued. Whatever the outcome, the Sneddon family deserves some answers.