World

Euna Lee & Laura Ling face up to 10 years in labour camps

by CJaye | June 5, 2009 at 04:42 am

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While Roxana Saberi’s imprisonment by the Iranians has attracted widespread international attention, fellow U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, detained in North Korea, have been less visible cases. The Wall Street Journal reports things appear to be getting worse for them:

Under international criminal law, defendants have the right to access diplomatic officers of their own state. But American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, detained for nearly two months, haven’t been allowed contact with Western officials since March 30. A South Korean man known only by his surname, Yu, also has been kept from any contact with officials from his country, according to the South’s Unification Ministry.

The Journal contextualizes the Lee/Ling detention within a pattern of recent belligerence from the North after the illness of dictator Kim Jong-Il. Below is a copy of the statement from Reporters Without Borders demanding Lee and Ling’s release.

Reporters Without Borders urges the North Korean authorities not to go ahead with their announced intention to try two American journalists of Asian origin, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, on charges of entering the country illegally and carrying out “hostile” activities.

The two journalists, who work for San Francisco-based online television station Current TV, were arrested by the North Korean authorities on 17 March after travelling through northern China to the North Korean border to do a story on trafficking in North Korean women. According to an email which one of them sent to a Reporters Without Borders contact, they wanted to investigate the networks organising the smuggling of women out of North Korea and their sale in China.

The state-owned North Korean news agency KCNA announced on 30 March that they have been charged with “illegal” entry. “The illegal entry of US reporters into the DPRK [North Korea] and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements,” the news agency said. If convicted, they could be sentenced to between five and 10 years of forced labour.

Links to other stories: http://my.nowpublic.com/world/euna-lee-laura-ling-american-journalists-held-north-korea

US Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee Face Trial in North Korea

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/north-korea-try-us-reporters

http://my.nowpublic.com/world/us-state-dept-concerned-over-seized-reporters

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Amy Judd

at 07:51 on June 5th, 2009

Yes they really haven't been given much attention at all, and people seem much more willing to forget about them, which is really very strange and sad.

Serra (not verified)

at 21:33 on June 5th, 2009

People have not necessarily forgotten about them...people have been trying to post articles on the matter at Current.com but they are deleted immediately after. The longest one of them was up was over night... and when I checked again in the morning, it was gone.

They are cared about. People are trying to do what they can. They are just met with obstacles put up by our own people---I don't understand how this isn't front-page news... Americans should be outraged by this. I think it especially sad that the cameraman and executive producer that were with the women somehow "evaded arrest."

Go here to petition for their release: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-euna-and-laura

It might not be much but it's what we can do for now.

Serra (not verified)

at 21:35 on June 5th, 2009

*and when I say it's "sad" that the cameraman and exec producer evaded arrest, it's because I feel terrible that these two women were singled out. It's nothing against their crew.

Jarrett Martineau

at 10:59 on June 5th, 2009

Thanks for this, CJaye. It is shocking to me how little coverage there has been of this case. Not the least of which has been Current's failure to speak publicly about the incident.

Spydermonkey

at 12:17 on June 5th, 2009

I don't know if a public outcry will help here as much as it did with Iran, but I don't think it will hurt any.

Blue Crush

at 14:44 on June 5th, 2009

Nothing has been heard out of North Korea since their trial yesterday, but now there's talk of sending Al Gore over there.

The journalists, who work for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV, were doing a story about the trafficking of women when they were arrested on March 17 near the Chinese-North Korean border. It was unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by border guards who encroached on Chinese territory.

Current TV has remained silent on the story.

But on Friday, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly did not rule out the possibility of Gore being sent to take part in the negotiation for their release. "It's a very, very sensitive issue, I'm not going to go into it," Kelly told reporters.

When asked if Gore himself was the one to raise the issue of him going, Kelly refused to get into any details on discussions that may or may not have taken place.

CJaye

at 04:17 on June 6th, 2009

Thank you everybody for all your great comments. This is a very sad situation I look for coverage and it's hard to find. It should be all in the news. It should be front page of every newspaper there is.