Ask a Korean has translated and posted two entries by Nambukstory blogger Joo Seung-ha, who gives his perspective as North Korean defector on the journalists’ detention and release and how it might play in North Korea. Below are a few quotes to whet your appetites:
The American journalists must shed their martyrdom image. Strictly speaking, they are illegal border crossers — not to mention the fact that they were caught fooling around the border of the scariest country in the world. They are lucky to not have gone through worse.
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The journalists did not say much yesterday, but they stated that every day, every moment they feared being sent to a gulag. Although it appears clear that they were worried, I do not feel very inclined to believe the words “every day, every moment”. If they were truly gripped by such fear, they have no right as journalists, as they lack the most basic judgment of reality.
It does not take a journalist to make a reasonable guess that there will be no harm, physical or otherwise, to a person who is definitely going to return to America and testify about how they were treated. And it is laughable that they were thinking about gulags when they managed to make international phone calls while living in a guest house.
Ask a Korean also translated a few comments and replies to the Nambukstory posts, including this one:
3. Isn’t it too ungenerous to criticize when they were trying report on North Korean defectors?
Answer: Reporting on North Korean defectors in China and jumping the North Korean border to get a nice picture are two different things. The journalists themselves said they voluntarily crossed the border. (If North Korea kidnapped them, America would have never reacted this way.) Could they really not report on North Korean defectors if they did not step on the North Korean soil along the border? Such senseless action makes me question if they truly were motivated by concerns for North Korean defectors, or by a desire to make their own names.
Read the rest of the August 6 entry “American Journalists Must Not Act Like Martyrs” and the August 5 entry “Propaganda Following Clinton’s Visit to North Korea” at Ask a Korean.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Interesting article if a little silly and illogical. “The American journalists must shed their martyrdom image” – I haven’t seen any evidence of a “martyrdom image.” Most people probably think they were a little stupid or naive and got themselves into trouble by underestimating the wierdness of NK. And since they admit having stepped over into NK territory, that’s really the end of the story.
Not quite. With a movie deal, probably a couple of books too, it’s more like the beginning…
The beginning of what?
How about a video game called Reporter Rescue?
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