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U.S. talking to North Korea about detained journalists
Bombay News.Net
Friday 20th March, 2009
The United States has confirmed it is in touch with North Korea about two U.S. journalists being held by Pyongyang.
A State Department official says the U.S. has contacted North Korea through its mission to the UN in New York. The official says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is very involved in the case, noting she is having phone conversations with relevant parties.
Media reports say U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained Tuesday with their Chinese guide near the Tumen River, along North Korea's border with China. It is unclear whether they were on the Chinese or North Korean side of the river.
The journalists were reportedly working on a story on North Korean refugees, many of whom try to escape the country by crossing the river into China.
The two were said to have ignored warnings from North Korean guards to stop filming. Reports say a fourth person escaped arrest.
China has said it is also investigating the matter.
The United States and North Korea have no official diplomatic ties but communicate through their delegations at the United Nations in New York, and through the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, which represents U.S. interests in North Korea.
Ling and Lee were working for an online news company - Current TV - that is based in California. Current TV was co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
The incident comes at a sensitive time for U.S.-North Korean relations, with the communist state preparing what it calls a satellite launch early next month. The U.S. and South Korea say the launch is a cover for a test of the North's longest-range missile.  Email this story to a friend
Comments on this story
Anonymous
03-20-09, 09:19 PM |
U.S. talking to North Korea about detained journalists
Forget about the two individuals, they know what they are doing and nobody force them to take the risk. There are more urgent issues in this world that merit our attention.
The most we get from the two are tainted reports, or preaching a foreign religion/belief not native to the region.
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kawahchan
03-21-09, 11:46 AM |
North Korea confirms 2 US reporters held.
A non-official conversation from (R) 2012 DAN QUAYLE Presidential policy analysis team to DPRK’s leader Kim Jong Il : First of all, we are non-official and we don’t represent and speaking for the US Obama-Biden Socialist government, so the leader Kim Jong Il can relax. Nothing related to those previous insincere black leaderships with an insincerely “black heart”; we are talking about Asian-American-“to”-Northern Korean affairs, should be much more easier to understand to each other. The 2 Asian-American journalists Miss Laura Ling and Miss Euna Lee are the Northern California based Current TV channel’s Special Interest news stories reporters; the assignment what Miss Ling and Miss Lee are working on is just the interview with the Northern Korean hidden refugees' survival stories in order to harmony with the future christian church’s fundraising for North Korean refugee charity since the 2008, US Congress & Senate had passed a legislation to grant North Korean refugees who make it to flee N. Korea can be allowed to live in the United States permanently. Miss Ling and Miss Lee “CANNOT” be put on trial for spy like that serious. Of course if North Korea plan to use these 2 Asian-American journalist detainees to play politics to embarrass that Social Butterfly Hillary R. Clinton and her US obama-Biden Socialist government’s poor capability that’s just “too little”. MAY we, the non-official Asian-American individuals to suggest to DPRK’s leader Kim Jong Il to be MORE GENEROUS to invite our 2 Asian-American journalists Miss Laura Ling and Miss Euna Lee to stay in Pyongyang to observe the coming new North Korean Satellite launching, then let 2 ladies to do an executive interview with the new future DPRK’s leader Kim Jong-Un and his mother, the Concubine # 3 Ko Yong-hi before to release Miss Ling and Miss Lee to bring her interviews back to the United States. No hard feeling, give (R) 2012 DAN QUAYLE presidency a good face and Kim Jong Il is much easy to back off.
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waltky
06-08-09, 01:42 AM |
Pro’bly a Korean kangaroo court...
NKorea jails US scribes for 12 years
8 Jun 2009, North Korea’s top court has convicted two US journalists, and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison, the country’s state news agency reported Monday.
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The Central Court tried American TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee and confirmed their unspecified ``grave crime'' against the nation, and of illegally crossing into North Korea, the Korean Central News Agency said. It said the court, which tried the women from June 4 to 8, “sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor.'' The report gave no other details.
The US Embassy in Seoul said it had no immediate comment. The circumstances surrounding the trial of the two journalists and their arrest three months ago on the China-North Korean border have been shrouded in secrecy, as is typical of the reclusive nation. There were fears that the two women would be used by Pyongyang as bargaining chips in its standoff with South Korea and the United States, which are pushing for UN sanctions to punish the nation for its latest nuclear blast and barrage of missile tests.
The journalists, working for former Vice President Al Gore’s California-based Current TV, were arrested on March 17 as they were reporting about the trafficking of women. It’s unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China. Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider did not have an immediate response to the sentencing. The women cannot appeal as they were tried in North Korea’s highest court where decisions are final. The sentences are much harsher than what many observers had hoped for. The trial was not open to the public or to foreign observers.
[url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/NKorea-jails-US-scribes-for-12-years/articleshow/4630135.cms:
Source[/url]
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