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Laura Ling and Euna Lee: Hostages of the Hermit Kingdom
In the Los Angeles Times, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two American journalists imprisoned in North Korea after reporting on human trafficking between North Korea and China, recount the circumstances of their arrest. They say they were arrested by North Korean soldiers after returning across the Tumen River to Chinese territory:
When we set out, we had no intention of leaving China, but when our guide beckoned for us to follow him beyond the middle of the river, we did, eventually arriving at the riverbank on the North Korean side. He pointed out a small village in the distance where he told us that North Koreans waited in safe houses to be smuggled into China via a well-established network that has escorted tens of thousands across the porous border.
Feeling nervous about where we were, we quickly turned back toward China. Midway across the ice, we heard yelling. We looked back and saw two North Korean soldiers with rifles running toward us. Instinctively, we ran.
We were firmly back inside China when the soldiers apprehended us. Producer Mitch Koss and our guide were both able to outrun the border guards. We were not. We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on Chinese soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers. They violently dragged us back across the ice to North Korea and marched us to a nearby army base, where we were detained.
Over the next 140 days, we were moved to Pyongyang, isolated from one another, repeatedly interrogated and eventually put on trial and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.
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- September 1, 2009 9:11 PM
Reporters’ Trial Begins in N Korea
The trial of U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee started yesterday in Pyongyang. The two reporters for Current TV were arrested while reporting from the Chinese side of the border about North Korean refugees. Al Jazeera reports:
The Korean Central News Agency said on Thursday the trial of Laura Ling and Euna Lee would start at 3 pm local time (0600 GMT) but has not released any further information.
Experts say the pair could face up to 10 years in a North Korean labour camp if convicted of entering the country with hostile intent.
From Chosun Ilbo:
This is the first time American citizens have stood trial in a North Korean court, and it is unprecedented for the North to announce the time of trial. The date was announced on May 14. “It seems that the North is attempting to take advantage of this incident for its negotiations with the U.S.,” a South Korean government official speculated.
The verdict could become a new variable in Washington-Pyongyang relations, which are icy after North Korea’s nuclear test on May 25 and moves to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile.
The journalists are charged with “illegal entry” and “hostile acts” against North Korea, which could put them into jail for up to 10 years under the country’s criminal code. The North on March 31 said the charges were supported “by evidence and their own testimonies.”
From AP:

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- June 5, 2009 2:16 AM
John Pomfret: Why China Won’t Do More With North Korea
On his blog, John Pomfret offers his insight into expectations in the U.S. that China should “do more” about reining in Pyongyang are missing the point:
First, there’s a silly assumption in Washington that our interests (no nukes in North Korea) are the same as China’s. But they’re not. China’s first interest in North Korea is making sure the Kim regime doesn’t collapse. China’s second interest? Making sure the Kim regime doesn’t collapse. From Beijing’s perspective, nukes in North Korea rank somewhere around 10th.
Why is China so intent on “regime maintenance”? If North Korea collapses a few things happen.
First, about 2 million people will rush into China’s northeast as refugees. Not fun – and a huge tax on China’s already poor infrastructure.
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- May 27, 2009 10:12 PM
2 US Journalists to be Tried in North Korea
The two American journalists for Current TV who were arrested by North Korean security while reporting on Korean refugees in China will go on trial in Pyongyang for “confirmed crimes,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency (read KCNA dispatch here). From AP:
Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who work for San Francisco-based Current TV, a media venture founded by former Vice President Al Gore, were arrested March 17 near the North Korean border while reporting on refugees living in China.
North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency confirmed their detention late last month, saying indictments were being prepared as an investigation into suspected illegal entry and unspecified “hostile acts” continued.
A dispatch Friday said the investigation had concluded, and the journalists would stand trial “on the basis of the confirmed crimes.” It did not say exactly what charges they face or when the trial would take place.
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- April 25, 2009 9:18 PM
North Korea to Try U.S. Journalists as Launch Nears
Reuters reports that North Korea plans to try the two American journalists arrested while reporting on North Korean refugees in China:
The reclusive state accused the two women reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee from the U.S.-based media outlet Current TV, of unspecified “hostile acts.”
Pyongyang’s announcement comes just days before North Korea plans to put what it says is a satellite into space but which Washington and others say will be a test of a long-range missile that could carry a warhead as far as U.S. territory.
One Seoul-based analyst said intelligence reports indicated North Korea appears to have built nuclear warheads for its mid-range Rodong missiles, which can reach Japan.
See some of Ling’s previous reporting on China for Current TV, via CDT.
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- March 31, 2009 1:45 PM
No. Korea Confirms Americans Were Detained
Two American journalists working for Current TV, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, have been arrested in North Korea, apparently after mistakenly crossing the border while reporting from China on North Korean refugees. From ABC News:
The reporting Ling and Lee were doing took them all the way to the border between China and North Korean.
It is a difficult, even dangerous trip. They got help planning the journey from Reverend Chun Ki Won, a Christian missionary from South Korea whose organization smuggles Bibles into North Korea through China.
[...] “It’s hard to determine the border, that which is North Korea or that which is China because it is just frozen river,” he said.
So Chun said it’s possible that the reporters inadvertently stepped onto North Korean territory, and that was likely when North Korean soldiers arrested the two women, accusing them of entering the country illegally.
Korea Times has more details:
The Korea Central News Agency said its authorities detained two Americans on March 17 while they were “illegally intruding the territory of the DPRK by crossing the DPRK-China border,” Yonhap reported Saturday. DPRK is the official name for North Korea, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The report came as two female reporters from Current TV, an American Cable outlet, were reportedly taken by North Korean soldiers along the Tumen River on the Chinese border while filming the North Korean side early this week.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “is engaged in this matter right now,” spokesman Robert Wood told reporters Friday. “There is a lot of diplomacy going on. There have been a number of contacts made.”
See some of Ling’s previous reporting on China for Current TV, via CDT.
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- March 21, 2009 9:07 PM
Thousands Of NKorea Children Face Hardship In China: Activists
From AFP:
A newly formed rights group said Tuesday it would launch a campaign to help thousands of North Korean children forced into begging or prostitution in northeast China.
The Seoul-based North Korean Human Rights Campaign Organising Committee said it was concerned about orphan refugees and about “stateless” children born to North Korean refugee women and Chinese men.
The number of orphans who have fled food shortages and other hardships and crossed into China is now about 2,000, according to committee estimates based on surveys by non-governmental organisations.
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- September 2, 2008 6:01 PM
Children of North Korean Women in China Face Hurdles, Rights Group Says
A new report from Human Rights Watch which says that children of North Korean women living in China and their Chinese spouses are denied basic rights due to their mothers’ illegal status. From the Los Angeles Times:
The numbers of affected children may reach the tens of thousands, Human Rights Watch said in its report. China is home to as many as 100,000 North Koreans, the vast majority of them women. Just as the women need food and shelter, Chinese farmers are desperate for wives.
China’s traditional preference for sons and the migration of young women to the cities have left the countryside with a shortage of marriageable women.
Children of migrant workers living away from their legal residences also have difficulty attending school, but not to the degree of the children of North Korean women, who are in effect stateless, having no home village to fall back on and no legal status in either country.
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- April 13, 2008 10:50 PM
Jim Seymour: Background paper on the situation of North Koreans in China
The UNHCR has recently posted a report on the situation of North Korean refugees in northeastern China. The report is written by James D. Seymour. From the Executive Summary:
In the wake of the North Korean famine, which began in 1995, hundreds of thousands of people fled to northeast China. Although many returned and a smaller number went to third countries, many tens of thousands remain. They face two main problems. First is the mistreatment they sometimes receive. China does not recognize them as refugees, or even the legality of their being in the country, so they are forced into an underground existence, making them targets for economic and sexual exploitation. Secondly, Chinese authorities take the position, at least implicitly, that their obligation to return these people to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea supersedes any obligations they would have under the international human rights covenants and refugee conventions. Thus, many people have been forced back to North Korea against their will, where some have been imprisoned and apparently sometimes executed for the “crime” of leaving the country.
The full report, which is 41 pages long, is here (PDF format).
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- March 15, 2005 5:42 PM