Exploring the secret floor of the North Korean hotel

A British tourist recently revealed that she was taken to a "secret" floor in the North Korean hotel where the ill-fated American student Otto Warmbier once stayed.

The woman, who asked not to be named, said she had arrived at a hotel on an island in the Pyongyang River as part of a nine-day trip to North Korea in 2011. She was taken to a secret floor by the same company that organized the fatal trip for Otto Warmbier.

One evening, after her group had finished dinner, the tour guide encouraged them to go to a restricted floor. "We had to be quiet and everyone felt a sense of secrecy and a little fear," she said, adding that the secret floor contained offices and meeting rooms.

After a brief visit, the female tourist group left the secret floor and the rest of their trip ended peacefully, unlike the case of Otto Warmbier.

The only hotel that matched the woman’s description was the Yanggakdo International Hotel, which is where Otto was caught stealing a hotel banner on the fateful final night of his 2016 trip.

After being caught red-handed, Otto was tried in North Korea and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. He was recently released on humanitarian grounds. Otto was flown back to the United States in a coma and died six days later.

The female tourist said she feared that the tour company was negligent in leading young, naive tourists into dangerous situations without properly assessing the risks. According to this tourist, it seems that the tour company regularly takes tourists to the secret floor even though they know they are not allowed to go there.

She also explained that the tour was advertised as "a bit adventurous". Like Otto's tour, this female tourist's trip consisted entirely of international guests who had never been to North Korea.

According to VNE