Kim Jong Il Dead: Laura Ling, Lisa Ling Respond To 'Dear Leader's' Death (VIDEO)

Journalists and sisters Laura and Lisa Ling appeared in an exclusive interview on CNN's "AC360" Monday night, to respond to the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il.

Both Laura and Lisa have covered the country and Kim's regime for their respective media organizations. Laura and her Current TV colleague Euna Lee were detained by soldiers in 2009 for filming along the North Korea-Chinese border. They were sentenced to 12 years hard labor, but were released five months later after months of diplomatic negotiations and a personal intervention by President Bill Clinton.

When asked how she responded to the news of Kim's death, Laura said "it was very surreal," and that she "got chills immediately." She added that she thought about the guards and interrogators tasked with keeping her prisoner while she was held captive in North Korea in 2009. "We did develop a relationship, and I thought about what the future might hold for them," she said.

Lisa said that they both found the news of his death "quite surprising," since she recalled President Clinton describing the "Dear Leader's" mental faculties as "fully intact" when he negotiated Laura's release.

WATCH:

Photos of Kim:

Comments

[Peguy]

06:10 PM on 12/21/2011

Incredible the amount of hatred demonstrated on these boards towards the Ling sisters. I had no idea people harbored such ill will towards these women. Unbelievable. Journalists who risk so much to try to bring us information about what is going on in those areas where we have so little access... and who get lambasted for doing so. When did journalism stop being a "noble" profession. When did we stop wanting to know what honestly was happening in other countries, and were satisfied only to take the propaganda as it is presented by another government? We now know there are gulags in North Korea that have expanded over the last decade... we are becoming more aware of the human rights violations, and people like Laura Ling were willing to risk their lives to bring us the stories... but she gets lambasted on here like she did something horrible for wanting to get close to the stories and bring the information back to us. Fascinating hatred.

[Peguy]

05:58 PM on 12/21/2011

I wondered, even then, if the comment about Kim Jong II's health and mental facilities by Clinton was part of the agreement in negotiating the release. The rumors about his health had been persistent for some time, what better way than to use Clinton as a "witness" to his robust mental health to try to allay those rumors?

[Assumed Name]

07:33 PM on 12/20/2011

...they're still unimpressive.

[KOSSNC]

12:23 PM on 12/21/2011

I would take Laura and Lisa anyday over the 20 million dollar anchor who does nothing but sit behind his desk. The 20 million dollar anchor idea of world news is interviewing the lying dictator in the region. At least Laura and Lisa take some risk and talk to some of the common people.

[Assumed Name]

06:20 PM on 12/21/2011

They're irresponsible dips: you can have them.

[CANTHATBE]

06:12 PM on 12/20/2011

Two very brave ladies Lisa and Laura. They have gone more places with just a camera than an army of 6' 8'' 300 pound men.

[Jim in California]

02:05 AM on 12/21/2011

No, they are celebrities. They are neither brave nor heroes. Brave is ane inappropriate adjective which is totally overused these days. These two are overpaid celebrities who do sugar-coated stories about serious issues.

[CANTHATBE]

10:54 AM on 12/21/2011

Who is doing serious world news. It ain't CBS,PBS,NBC,ABC,CNN, Reuters, AP and of course not FOX. I have looked into those. There are several english newspapers a few ok but their news is spotty in Asia, Africa, South America. There is no real world news in the USA that is really worth a D__ . Any good suggestion on a world newspaper that is today not fully propagandized by Governments including the USA.

[KOSSNC]

12:31 PM on 12/21/2011

It takes much more courage to walk into a hot zone with just a camera person and a guide than it does to roll in with an army, tanks, planes and far superior fire power.

[madcityy]

03:08 PM on 12/20/2011

they r experts on zeroooooooooooooooooooooooo,,this item belongs in the litter box

[PDXTransplant]

05:18 PM on 12/20/2011

And, what have you done your research on your computer?

[negogato]

12:12 AM on 12/21/2011

Mostly just typing.

[CANTHATBE]

06:13 PM on 12/20/2011

They know way more than the WMD so called Bush experts.

[donasanya]

02:23 PM on 12/20/2011

Am I the only one who finds it curious that Euna Lee has not appeared with the Ling sisters to talk about her experience in North Korea since the initial interviews following their release? I bet she does not agree with how they've been milking this ordeal for personal gain.

[Margo Arrowsmith]

08:18 PM on 12/20/2011

And just how have they been 'milking this ordeal for personal gain' and what makes you qualified to project yourself onto someone else?

[Jim in California]

02:07 AM on 12/21/2011

They have milked it for 15 minutes of fame and money.....that's how!

[MikeHermit]

10:33 PM on 12/20/2011

She does not have a firm grasp of English. Why, at the tarmac when they got off the plane, only Laura spoke.

[newscorchedearth]

02:20 PM on 12/20/2011

Kim Jong loved to just stare at objects apparently http://newscorchedearth.com/

[RockyMissouri]

12:23 AM on 12/21/2011

Too funny!

[Leon Engelun]

02:07 PM on 12/20/2011

Maybe the US should send the 3 hikers there to represent the US at the funeral.

[WallyWong]

01:52 PM on 12/20/2011

Did you or did you not enter their country illegally??? I don't care for the North Koreans but that doesn't mean I'm going to eat all the BS these sisters are feeding us. Go away.

[negogato]

12:14 AM on 12/21/2011

I don't understand your hatred.

[bigdawg1980]

01:45 PM on 12/20/2011

Of course the dwarf-lesbian held them! They're the most beautiful women N. Korea has seen since 1950!

[depasquale5]

01:07 PM on 12/20/2011

I find it ethnocentric for the two to enter a country, then expect to be saved.

[Mondayboy]

01:56 PM on 12/20/2011

Do you understand what ethnocentric means?

[Margo Arrowsmith]

08:20 PM on 12/20/2011

lol  Obviously not.

[demisfine]

01:06 PM on 12/20/2011

Lisa Ling is a hack.
The best thing that ever happened to her "career" was her sister getting imprisoned.
Honestly, she adds nothing, but she certainly has made this story about herself.

[PDXTransplant]

05:32 PM on 12/20/2011

Ha. You wouldn't last an hour with Lisa on any of her trips.

[demisfine]

08:39 PM on 12/20/2011

Funny, she sent her sister into the rough patch, while she was home and pampered.

[Robert Frano]

01:50 PM on 12/21/2011

Re: "...Ha. You wouldn't last an hour with Lisa on any of her trips..." {PDXTransplant}...

...So correct, Madam. Now...
Please allow me to count the ways by which I'd ‘relieve’ myself of the existential - angst, ('raw-suffering', really!)', to be so-encumbered, while a-visitin’ the ‘sisters, Ling’:

...Hanging, being fed to a monitor-lizard/snake/moose/lion/polar-bear-or-other-ursine, self-inflicted hatchet/automobile/gun-shot/explosive-device/run-over-by-a-taxing-airliner/jump-off-building/in-front-of-train'...
These are but a few of the many escape-methods to be employed, if faced with an >, in the same celestial-location as the 'sisters, Ling'!

[AG creative]

01:01 PM on 12/20/2011

I'd like to party with those two Lings.

[YOKEL13]

05:14 PM on 12/20/2011

Two Lings and a Ding-a-Ling?

[AG creative]

06:07 PM on 12/20/2011

LOL

[catbyte]

12:57 PM on 12/20/2011

I remember watching Lisa Ling's report on the cataract surgery in NK and was flabbergasted the patients and families snubbed the doctors and instead tearily thanked the benevolence of Dear Leader. I hadn't quite realized the stranglehold he had on the country and to risk thanking anyone else but "Dear Leader" could land them and their whole family in one of those wonderful work camps.

What a gawd awful place to live that must be.

[fds]

11:25 AM on 12/20/2011

"Kim Jong Il Dead: Laura Ling, Lisa Ling Respond To 'Dear Leader's' Death"

More of this "dear leader" shít? Please.