Laura Ling, Euna Lee Detained In North Korea

SEOUL, South Korea — Two American journalists detained by North Korean soldiers are believed to have been sent to Pyongyang for questioning, a news report said Sunday.

North Korea said Saturday it was investigating two Americans it detained Tuesday for "illegally intruding" into its territory after crossing the border from China.

A brief dispatch from the North's official Korean Central News Agency gave no other details, but it was apparent confirmation of reported arrests of two female U.S. journalists reporting on North Korean refugees in the border area.

South Korean media and a South Korean missionary identified the two detained Americans as Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based media outlet Current TV.

A U.S. official said Saturday that the U.S. has been in touch with North Korean representatives about the journalists and is awaiting a reply. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing the sensitivity of the issue, said the U.S. doesn't know where the North is holding them.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency said Sunday, in a report from the Chinese city of Yanji, that it is highly likely that they were sent to Pyongyang to be investigated for their alleged border intrusion.

"Considering the significance of the case, there is a high possibility that the two U.S. journalists have been sent to Pyongyang and are undergoing a direct investigation" by the North's spy agency and military, Yonhap quoted a source in China it described as privy to North Korean affairs.

Yonhap quoted other sources in China as saying the North's confirmation of the arrest appeared to demonstrate that Pyongyang's intelligence and military headquarters are directly interrogating the journalists.

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Yonhap also said the North is expected to "politically" use the U.S. journalists in its negotiations with the U.S. government.

Ties between Washington and Pyongyang already have been strained over the North's refusal to fully verify its past nuclear activities and its announced plan to launch a satellite into orbit in early April. U.S. and other regional powers argue the launch is a cover for a long-range missile test.

The two journalists, along with a male cameraman and a guide, were headed to Yanji, across the border from North Korea's far northeastern corner, where they planned to interview women forced by human traffickers to strip for online customers and meet with children of defectors, according to the Rev. Chun Ki-won of the Seoul-based Durihana Mission, a Christian group that helps defectors.

Then they planned to travel to Dandong, said Chun who helped the journalists organize the trip.

At the Yalu River near Dandong on Sunday, rifle-carrying North Korean soldiers across the river patrolled its bank. A group of men painted fishing boats on the North Korean side during low tide.

Many North Korean children who grow up on the run in China live in legal limbo, unable even to attend school, according to a 2008 Human Rights Watch report.

The North Korean-Chinese border is long, porous and not well demarcated and thus a common route for escape from the North.

A growing number of North Koreans have sneaked into China to escape political repression and chronic food shortages and to seek asylum, mostly in South Korea, according to North Korean defectors in South Korea and activists.

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Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Washington and AP photographer Andy Wong in Dandong, China contributed to this report.

Comments

[PlayTOE]

We should be thankful for the work of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were on a mission to tell the truth.

Now they need EVERYONE to insist on knowing the truth about what is happening to them.
A flood of letters to the North Korean government would make a difference in how this turns out.

They need more than best wishes, they need action.

[Snice]

"Dear lil Kim, U R sooooooo mean...

[PSM42]

Or was it KAL 007 again? -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korean_Air_Lines_Flight_007

Where was Che. ney?

[PersonaNonGrated]

I've been a long-time fan of Laura Ling's work, and she's gone to dangerous places and really put herself in harm's way.

I was afraid something like this would happen to her. It really is sad to see someone that is so earnest in her work fall under these circumstances.

[vesaversa1]

I wonder sometime why peoples do such stupid thing like this crossing over into North Korea a military state knowing they would be capture and detain, it's just plain ignorance on these women part.

[jungfreud]

Journalists have a tendency to put themselves in dangerous situations, its part of their job. I'm sure of all the reasons they were there, ignorance was not one of them.

[learnsomething]

Not ignorance, but it certainly is stupidity.

[sasson]

No, it is not. They were trying to give a voice to women enslaved by human trafficking. They were crossing a frozen river with no clear identifiable border when their guides led them slightly astray. Ignor.ance would be not caring.

[kirssstens]

There is no clear evidence that they knowingly crossed the border or that they were even on the wrong side when they were detained. This is all heresay from the North Korean Govt., take it for what it's worth.

[CheneysACoward]

Yes dear leader...w­e really want to find out how wonderfull it is in " Workers Paradies" Now if you believe that......­.

[Snice]

I saw Laura Ling recently on Current TV. She was in Mexico investigating drug murders. It seemed to me that she was taking a lot of risks in a very dangerous place and I remember being afraid at the time that she
might come to harm. It is exciting to see reporters in bad places but there is often a reason that no one else is there reporting.

[learnsomething]

She was in Mexico investigating drug murders? WTF! Those people are dangerous. Then stepping over into North Korea. I am just shaking my head. I can't believe how these journalists put their lives in such peril like this. Her sister Lisa does the same thing, no wonder their mother worries so much about them.

[LMPE]

If I ever go to North Korea - and that's a big if - I'm only going to do it as part of an organized trip, with full recognition by North Korea's government.

[bikerdude]

Going to North Korea is easy. Getting back out is the problem. As in most other situations, its really, really good to have an exit strategy..­.
I can't imagine why these people do things like this. Now WE have to get them out.
There are loads of people in North Korea reporting back on the status of the state. Analysis of this data is what we pay hundreds, maybe thousands of people to do. I was there years ago doing what needed to be done and these press crazies just got in the way and made things dangerous for everyone trying to do their jobs.

[instagladiator]

Prelude to a US invasion?
Hint: "blah blah blah, who spoke on condition of anonymity" - that infamous phrase is used.

It is quite evident that these two women were planted there for the sole purpose of provoking NK into taking action, such as they did, to focus world attention on this part of the world.

Who, in their right minds, (other than Joe the whatever he is this week) would place themselves in such a perilous position? C'mon!

Or maybe these two reporters read and didn't fully comprehend the Boosh Doctrine?

[sasson]

Did you have an extra helping of conspiracy juice this morning?

[instagladiator]

Conspiracy?

[Islandtime]

Travel in hostel nations carry risks.

[MexDiva]

they were traveling as a result of their job, not on vacation. If journalists are not the people ready to take some risks, who would be?

and, of course, they will be used for political negotiations. Hopefully diplomatic arrangements can be done to liberate them.

[learnsomething]

You don't go over into dangeous situations in other countries, , and put you life in peril, thats lunacy,.

[primeelite]

Agreed, it is terrible but they knew the risks of going into a country such as that.