US JOURNALISTS CHARGED IN NORTH KOREA FACE YEARS IN LABOUR CAMP
Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor
Times Online
April 24, 2009
Euna Lee and Laura Ling are to stand trial in North Korea
Two female American journalists face five years or more in a labour
camp, after North Korea announced today that they would be prosecuted
for allegedly crossing the Stalinist state’s border with China.
Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of the web-based channel Current TV, were
arrested in mid-March while reporting from the Tumen River, which
marks North Korea’s northeast border. They were investigating the
plight of North Korean refugees and appear either to have crossed
the border or been abducted by Chinese soldiers.
Either way, they have now become pawns in a much larger international
diplomatic game in which the North Korean leader, Kim Jong Il, has
defied the world by testing a long-range nuclear missile and building
a small arsenal of nuclear weapons.
After being held for five weeks, the two have been formally prosecuted
on unknown charges, possible espionage or "hostility toward North
Koreans", which carry a sentence of between five and ten years.
"A competent organ of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
concluded the investigation into the journalists of the United States,"
the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported today. "The organ
formally decided to refer them to a trial on the basis of the confirmed
crimes committed by them."
The US has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, and it has relied
on the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang to act as its intermediary. A
Swedish diplomat has met the two captives, but the US Government
has said only that it is doing its best to free them, apparently
hoping that the case can be resolved quietly and not escalate into
an international incident.
Current TV, which was founded by the former US vice-president, Al
Gore, has made no statement about the detention of its employees,
and took down a report about their capture from its website.
Ms Ling, 32, is a Chinese-American and vice-president of the channel’s
investigative reporting unit, based in Hollywood. Euna Lee is a
Korean-American videographer. The two were accompanied by Mitch Koss,
a cameraman who escaped capture and is now back in the US.
A Christian pastor in South Korea, who introduced them to defectors
living in Chinese border towns, says that he warned them to stay clear
of the river border itself, which is easily crossed when it is frozen
or low.
A South Korean news agency reported that the journalists had crossed
the river and then ignored warnings to stop shooting footage inside
North Korea.
Another report claimed that they were arrested as they ran back across
the river, alleging that they were pursued by soldiers into China.
A num ber of foreigners have got into trouble for entering North
Korea by unapproved routes.
An American army helicopter pilot accidentally strayed from South to
North Korea in 1994; after signing an apology he was released after
13 days.
The last American to enter uninvited was a troubled man named Evan
Carl Hunziker, who swam across the river dividing the country from
China while drunk and remained in custody for three months. He was
released only after the then US Congressman, Bill Richardson, travelled
to North Korea with a $5,000 "accommodation fee". Mr Hunziker shot
himself dead a month later.