UPDATE: The full KCNA report can be read in Korean here and an edited English version here. The Korean text includes the name of the Korean-Chinese guide, Kim Seong-cheol. The English text does not.
The Washington Post has a report on a KCNA news brief alleging that detained journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee filmed themselves crossing the frozen Tumen River and entering a North Korean courtyard. The report also repeats a chilling claim that six videotapes were confiscated from the pair, who interviewed North Korean refugees in China prior to their arrest.
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What is the responsibility of the US government to these reporters now?
“The report also repeats a chilling claim that six videotapes were confiscated from the pair…”
Why is that “chilling”?
Mashimaro,
In short, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
The US has no diplomatic ties with NK. Anyone from the US going to North Korea does so completely at their own risk and with absolutely no safety net whatsoever. The State Department website on travel ( http://travel.state.gov ) very clearly and specifically states:
SAFETY AND SECURITY: DPRK Government security personnel closely monitor the activities and conversations of foreigners in North Korea. Hotel rooms, telephones and fax machines may be monitored, and personal possessions in hotel rooms may be searched. Do not take pictures unless you are told you can; taking unauthorized pictures can be perceived as espionage and may result in confiscation of cameras and film or even detention. DPRK border officials routinely confiscate visitorsโ cell phones upon arrival, returning the phone only upon departure. Foreign visitors to North Korea may be arrested, detained or expelled for activities that would not be considered criminal outside the DPRK, including involvement in unsanctioned religious and political activities, engaging in unauthorized travel, or interaction with the local population.
The North Korea travel page goes on to say:
While in a foreign country, a U.S. citizen is subject to that country’s laws and regulations, which sometimes differ significantly from those in the United States. Local laws also may not afford the protections available to U.S. citizens under U.S. law. Penalties for breaking local laws can be more severe than those in the United States for similar offenses. Persons violating the law, even unknowingly, may be expelled, arrested or imprisoned. Penalties for possession of, use of, or trafficking in illegal drugs are strict, and convicted offenders often face long jail sentences and heavy fines. North Korean security personnel may view unescorted travel inside North Korea by Americans who do not have explicit official authorization as espionage, especially when the U.S. citizens are originally from South Korea or are thought to understand the Korean language. Security personnel may also view any attempt to engage in unauthorized conversations with a North Korean citizen as espionage.
In case these messages aren’t clear enough to travelers, such as ethnic Korean journalists who intend to enter North Korea to engage in unauthorized reporting, the site also plainly states and warns:
The United States does not maintain diplomatic or consular relations with the DPRK. The U.S. Government therefore cannot provide normal consular protective services to U.S. citizens in North Korea.
and more specifically, it mentions that although the Swedish Embassy has been allowed to give limited consular visits, including visits to imprisoned Americans:
However, consular access has not been readily granted in cases where American citizens have been reported as being detained or held against their will by DPRK officials. Moreover, delegations with ethnic Korean individuals, or delegations representing Korean-affiliated organizations in the United States, are handled by DPRK structures that are well beyond the reach of diplomatic missions in Pyongyang.
All of that information is available on a single web page that takes less then five seconds to Google and open. The US has no responsibility toward any person detained in North Korea. If you go to a country such as NK with no diplomatic ties to the US and you break their laws, you are TOTALLY on your own. ANY concession you get from such a country’s courts or government should be considered a very precious miracle.
It should be noted that even if the US did have diplomatic relations with NK and had a full embassy there, their answer to your question would not be much different. Governments are in the business of foreign policy and diplomacy. They are not in the business of babysitting and riding to the rescue of citizen who (most often) knowingly violate the laws of a host country. As any person who has been imprisoned in a foreign country (take the numerous English teachers who get caught because they can’t seem to go a year or two without smoking weed for example) can tell you, the US Embassy does not mount a white stallion and rush to get little Billy or little Suzie out of a problem. They ONLY service they can provide is to notify family and to make sure that you are treated NO WORSE than a native of the host country would be treated in the same situation, which is not much of a comfort when you consider places like North Korea.
Sorry, Ling and Lee. You two screwed up BIG TIME. Now, be prepared for the consequences of your actions. You knew what you were risking or you should have known. Don’t cry about it now.
If they did break the law and cross into NK, then they are guilty. They are responsible for what they did.
However, it puts the US government in a bind as the story is really popular now.
They are women and one is a mother, so they automatically get 10 times more sympathy. A good percentage of the public “feels sorry” for them, so the government cant’ just do nothing. It’s a catch 22.
What gets me is the futility of Lisa Ling pleading with North Korea to take pity and release her sister. Doesn’t she realize that Kim Jong-Il doesn’t even care about the lives of his own people?
Something tells me that she is doing this more to sway American public opinion than North Korea. It will probably work.
@ Seth Gecko
Because now their families who are still in the North are going to get that much more pressure. In the North saying a bad thing about anything up there can literally land an entire family in gulags (work camps). So if one family member is bitching about the North or even just saying what happens, their family may have to suffer for me.
Another thought is they might be able to identify some of the helpers / sympathizers within China. What China would do I’m not sure.
Classic and amusing “What were they possibly thinking?” type of story. Until this report came out today, my theory was that their guide somehow led them into a trap at an appointed time and place in exchange for a big bounty from Dear Leader. Now I’m beginning to think that the three Current TV reporters were just plain stupid.
What were they thinking: KCNA reports: One of them picks up a stone as a souvenir of North Korea. Which one? My guess is Euna, the one who never had an overseas assignment before.
What were they thinking: KCNA reports: The confiscated video shows them actually narrating their trespassing across the Tumen River “We are now entering North Korea without permission…” Couldn’t they have dubbed the audio portion in their California studio?
What were they thinking: KCNA reports: 6 videotapes were confiscated. This is a huge mistake. Somebody should have stayed in the vehicle with those tapes of the refugee interviews in Yanji. Laura Ling and Mitch Koss didn’t need to bring Euna Lee along for any interpreting that morning as I’m sure they didn’t plan on interviewing North Korean sentries. Mitch could have picked up a North Korean stone for her.
I can’t wait for Mitch Koss to go on Jay Leno’s show and finally answer the question everybody, including actor Hugh Grant, wants to hear: “What were you thinking?”
Am I the only one who reads “KCNA reports” and remembers that this is the same “news agency” that reported Kim Jong-Il shot a 36-under his first time playing golf?
We just take this report at face value, simply because it’s parroted in the WaPo?
Sheeeeeeit, the KCNA’s lower on the journalistic integrity scale than the worst reporters at Yonhap and Pressian. 5:1 says they were caught within China.
I’m with Sweet Lou, but it looks like we have several commenters here who consider KCNA a reliable news source. Do you guys still read Pravda?
Consider this report filed by WNA (Wedge News Agency) : They are minding their own business on the China side of the Yalu when they are captured by Norks who crossed the river. Bonus: Six videotapes showing people involved in the underground railway for the Chinese authorities to roll up.
Don’t believe the KCNA for a second, but we all know the stories of up and coming reporters going to ridiculous and sometimes stupidly dangerous lengths to “get the story” and make a name for themselves.
Because of these ridiculous “I’m a member of the press, so you can’t hurt me” cavalier types, we have to consider that KCNA might actually be reporting a bit of truth here.
Why else would Mitch Koss be under a gag order?
If someone in NK made up the superfluous “pocketed a stone” story then that is truly creative.
Stupid female Asian-American reporter types like Lisa and Laura Ling. I hope that they are freed but it’s like going into the lion’s cave to prove they are doing something brave, well, the lion’s just acting like a lion, and not like a cuddly soft toy.
SweetLou: On the same day KCNA gives us this report about a Current TV reporter putting a North Korean stone in her pocket as a souvenir (Did KCNA really make that up?) … we also get reports from newspapers much higher on the journalistic integrity scale (Associated Press, Asahi Shimbun, Korea Times, KBS, etc.) informing the world that Li’l Kim (Jong Un) met secretly with President Hu Jintao in Beijing around the same time his personal ninjas were elsewhere in China trying to assassinate his eldest brother (Jong Nam).
Yonhap News Agency just updated their story on the KCNA report with two additional details, including information about the ethnic Korean-Chinese guide introduced by Pastor Chun Ki-won of South Korea’s Durihana:
The Americans consulted with senior producers of their television station in January for the “anti-DPRK smear campaign over its human rights issue” and received U$$9,950 for the project, the KCNA report said. In their Chinese visa application forms, they reported themselves as computer specialists entering China for travel, it said.
With help from a guard introduced by Chun Ki-won, a South Korean pastor who helps defectors, the reporters collected “vicious stories” about North Korea at the Chinese border region and covertly crossed the Tumen River into the North at dawn on March 17, the report claimed. They were arrested on the spot, it said.
Anyone doubting that these Current TV reporters are/were stupid need only go to the Current TV site and view the content there. So much stupidity on display from well-meaning muddle-headed young liberals.
My understanding is that China DOES in fact return North Korean refugees to whence they came if they are found on Chinese soil. So yeah, as much as I do hope these women are not subjected to a decade plus in an NK labor camp, I gotta jump in the chorus of boos here and think that there is somewhere they could have stashed these videos knowing they were planning to cross the border (if they in fact did) and knowing what kind of risk that was to undertake. If the possibility remains that were actually kidnapped on Chinese soil, it still would seem that audio recordings would have been a much safer alternative, even if a bit less sensational.
surprise, surprise.
The Current TV crew probably had already checked out of their hotel in Yanji. They were scheduled to proceed to Dandong (Liaoning province) later on that day (March 17), so I guess they didn’t want to leave their valuable videotapes unattended in a parked car (or van) near the Tumen River. The videos might have been carried by Euna Lee, who may have also served as equipment manager.
I wonder if Mitch Koss dropped the camera during his struggle to escape. He had previously been reported in most international media as the “cameraman” even though he is an executive producer. I guess he was filming Laura Ling and Euna at the time of capture. Mitch and the guide fled to China’s side of the Tumen River, where they were promptly detained by Chinese sentries on patrol in the area.
Mitch was taken to Beijing, but I don’t know what happened to the guide afterward.
I’m currently working on getting the guide’s name, and have a couple of potential leads.
Even if the two women were on Chinese soil, they knew they were at risk.
As a Korean-American, I believe that the fact these two women are Asian doesn’t help. And I don’t even mean that US public opinion may not be as sympathetic as if the two women were white. Rather, the fact that they are Asian, and one of them, born in South Korea, probably means the North Korean authorities won’t even see them as Americans even if it officially denounces them as American spies. Look at the KCNA pages in both English and Korean. All this time, I thought Euna Lee’s name was “Lee Eun-Ah,” but now it is known that “Euna” is her American name, and that her Korean name is ??? (Lee Seung-Un). Not surprised the NorKs insisted on using her Korean name I bet they had a field day questioning her, as shes from South Korea ( ???? ?????? ).
Mike Harrison is right in that an American going there is at risk. I have known Korean-Americans (in their 30s, who went recently; and, immigrants who are now in their 70s, who went in the late 1980s/early 1990s) who went to North Korea (and returned without problems), and while they told me they were well-received, they were extremely well-aware that they had to be very cautious with what they said and did. They also said that the North Korean guides had a relatively easy time with them as they did not complain nor object at any time. Based on the various travelogues by (white) Americans and Europeans who visited the DPRK, I speculate that if one going there and behaves exactly as the NorKs want, one wont have problems.
I feel for these womens families and certainly hope they are promptly released. But given the people who run that country, I speculate Lee Seung-Un and Laura Ling will not leave North Korea for quite some time, unfortunately.
Correction – the ???? you guys see are the Hangul for Lee Seung-Un’s name and for an excerpt from the Korean version of KCNA. I don’t Hangul here and had to copy/paste on Word, from where I copied/pasted my post.
Someone please explain to Yuna that Lisa Ling is not being held hostage in North Korea.
I hate to be inhumane, but did any of you see the Today Show interviews with the familes of Ling and Lee? When the Today Show host (I think Lauer) asked the Dad a question, it was Laura’s sister, Lisa Ling, who answered the question and butted in, stealing all the attention and face time. That clearly she was attention-grabbing was really disturbing, but I’ve come to expect little more from TV personalities.
North Korea qualify for the soccer World Cup. Deserves a post? I think so.
Whoever posts should check out the last time they qualified in 1966. And perhaps reflect a bit on the fact it’s being held in South Africa, who made a remarkable turn around from pariah state, only supported nominally by their superpower friends, to denuclearized democracy.
Thanks rampowers.
I know, but because Euna seems like a pretty, shy girl with a retiring personality (the image I saw of her is her testing the webcam Euna loves Doctor Pepper) , and also she doesn’t even seem to possess a reporter’s CV (it seems she was an editor who ended up tagging along) I directed my ire at LISA instead, as she seems to fit the picture of an Aggro Asian Female Journalist type..I mean she was going at N.Korea herself, right?
Reading my comment again, I can see why Acropolis thought that..
I was more angry with the Ling sisters, but I meant I hope that they “Euna and Lisa” are freed. Apologies.
I think Current TV is more worried about covering its collective ass than about the actual employees. Euna Lee had no business being on this assignment, and Laura Ling might have thought twice about it, as the NK surely had her on some list, after her sister’s hidden camera/misrepresentation stunt. First the IPO is postponed. Surely David Neuman and the lawyer (who’d been head of Def Jam, so he knows nothing about best practices for journalists) are vested. If the KCNA press release is to be believed, these two and others higher on the food chain than Ling and Lee signed off on this assignment. Lisa Ling keeps calling the pair “girls” which is at odds with the “hard hitting journalists” theme.
Gloria Allred needs to get on this case and sue Current on behalf of Euna Lee’s daughter and husband. Ling and Lee might have been fool-hardy, but they had orders to get the story, given by people who didn’t have any idea what could happen.
Belinda?
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