You may have read a few weeks ago that Current.TV reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling (sister of Lisa Ling), were detained in North Korea, as their guide reportedly lead the two across the border into North Korea accidentally while Lee and Ling were reporting on North Korean defectors crossing the border into China. The incident has now escalated: Lee and Ling have been imprisoned and interrogated the past few weeks and now being charged by the North Korean government, according to reports:
“Two American journalists detained in North Korea will be indicted and tried on charges of perpetrating “hostile acts” against the Communist state, a crime punishable by years in a labor camp, the North’s state-run news agency reported on Tuesday. Pyongyang’s decision to put Laura Ling and Euna Lee on trial signaled that the regime has no intention of freeing them soon.”
I’ve always been fascinated by North Korea, and it’s easy to make fun of Kim Jung Il, but its incidents like this that continue to reinforce in my mind that North Korea is one of the most dangerous and unpredictable governments and regimes in the world. North Korea has always been, in my mind, a more dangerous threat to stability than Iraq and Iran and have demonstrated that since the detonation of a nuclear weapon back in 2006. Since the United States doesn’t have direct diplomatic relationship with North Korea, the U.S. is going through Sweden, which does have an embassy in Pyongyang, to resolve this issue. I’m not sure what we as Americans can do to help in the release of Lee and Ling, but my prayers are certainly with them and their families and their hopeful safe and quick return.
What next?
Other posts you may be interested in:
- Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee pardoned and released by North Korea
- Laura Ling & Euna Lee’s First Statement Posted at Current TV’s site
- Not Everyone Thrilled With Laura Ling & Euna Lee
- The Struggles of Euna Lee’s Family While She Was Imprisoned in N. Korea
- Mike Kim of Escaping North Korea on The Daily Show
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3 Comments to “Current.tv’s Euna Lee and Laura Ling to be Indicted and Tried by North Korea”
8Asians.com » Mike Kim of Escaping North Korea on The Daily Show wrote:
[...] efforts are not without great danger to himself; Current.tv’s reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling were captured in their effort to report about North Korean escapees on the Chinese-North Korean border. Euna and [...]
Posted on 03-Jul-09 at 2:46 pm | Permalink
8Asians.com » Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee pardoned and released by North Korea wrote:
[...] Bill Clinton met with the North Korean leader to discuss the case of the two reporters who had been indicted, tried,, imprisoned, and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by North Korea for supposedly “illegally [...]
Posted on 04-Aug-09 at 11:59 am | Permalink
8Asians.com » Laura Ling & Euna Lee’s First Statement Posted at Current TV’s site wrote:
[...] they speak. Ever since Ling & Lee were captured, indicted, and then pardoned & released by North Korea earlier this year, the world has wondered what [...]
Posted on 01-Sep-09 at 9:42 pm | Permalink
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