By If you are wondering what the two American reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling were exactly convicted of in the North Korean kangaroo court, well the North Korean state run media has now informed us what it is they did that warrants 12 years in a labor camp:
North Korea’s state media has released a “detailed report” on the incident that led to the conviction of two American journalists who were sentenced this month to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested in March
for “having illegally trespassed into the border of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and committed hostile acts against it for which they were tried.” They were sentenced after a closed-door trial. The reporters for California-based Current TV — a media venture of former U.S. Vice President Al Gore — were arrested while reporting on the border shared by North Korea and China.
Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that the two women “admitted that what they did were criminal acts committed, prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK by faking up moving images aimed at falsifying its human rights performance and hurling slanders and calumnies at it.” [CNN]
Over at One Free Korea he has further details on this report where the North Koreans claim they have video footage the two women took while in North Korea. This is all coming from the North Korea media so take it for what it is worth, but if these two did intentionally cross into North Korea with cameras they are beyond foolish. However, even if this is true they are both clearly hostages because crossing the border shouldn’t lead to 12 years of hard labor.
However, as was pointed out by Spelunker the tapes that were confiscated supposedly had raw footage of North Korean refugees in China. These tapes could lead to extreme harm to those pictured in the tapes and any family they have in North Korea. If this is true these two were extremely reckless carrying around such tapes anywhere near the North Korean border that would put these refugees and their families in such danger.
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8:16 pm on June 16th, 2009 1
Here is more information from the KCNA report that I have dug from the Korean language version.
First of all, this is Yonhap News Agency's translation of one important paragraph:
"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."
Next I went to KCNA's Korean page and attempted my own translation using "Google Translate". I think I might have found something else concerning the local guide who led Current TV's crew (Mitch Koss, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee) across the Tumen River:
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-k.htm
3? 17? 6? ?? ??? ?? ?, ???? ???? ????? ???? ??? ?? ?? ??? ??????? ???? ???? ?? ?? ? ??? ??? ? ?????? ??? ????? ???? ?? ???? ?????? ??????.??? ??? ???? ?????? ????? ???? ?? ?????? ???.
"On March 17 at 6:00 Mitch Koss, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee … …. under the guidance of Kim Sung-chul…"
Can somebody who can read Korean please help me with this paragraph because I believe it might be mentioning the name of the ethnic Korean-Chinese guide who was introduced by Chun Ki-won. Is the name of the guide "Kim Sung-chul"? If so, it would be the first time this person's name has appeared in print!
8:26 pm on June 16th, 2009 2
Sorry, the Korean characters may not appear in my above post. I am referring to the paragraph in the middle that begins with the date March 17.
The Korean version of KCNA's report on the Americans is more detailed than the English one. The English report also mentions names of 3 Current TV executives including producer Mitch Koss, who accompanied Laura and Euna in Yanji and escaped capture at the Tumen River border area.
"The preliminary investigation proved that they had a confab on producing and broadcasting a documentary slandering the DPRK with Mitch Koss, executive producer of programming of the Current TV, David Neuman, president of programming, and David Harleston, head of the Legal Department of Current TV, and other men in Los Angeles, U.S. in January."
Harleston is the executive who ordered all Current TV employees to be silent and not attend the vigils.
12:51 am on June 17th, 2009 3
From what I see doing a Google search of Kim Sung-chul is that a person of the same name was imprisoned by the North Koreans because he was a NK soldier that provided video footage of a execution to Japanese TV:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.d09cf…
There is a few other Kim Sung-chul's that come up but none of them I could find worked at NK guides in China.
5:39 am on June 17th, 2009 4
UPDATE! BREAKING NEWS!
Kudos to Joon Gang Daily for finally getting Pastor Chun Ki-won to tell us who that guide is!
"Reporters’ guide arrested in China" (Kim Seong-cheol)
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?a…
Maybe Pastor Chun finally got tired of seeing Spelunker post on his website's bulletin board:
http://www.durihana.net/board/list.aspx?tbname=bb…
1:09 pm on June 17th, 2009 5
Anyone seen Al Gore lately? They worked for him.
1:41 pm on June 17th, 2009 6
Al Gore is scheduled to give the keynote speech at a climate themed conference in Melbourne (Australia) on July 13. Spelunker has already briefed Australian reporters who plan to attend the conference on what to ask the Current TV chairman with regard to Euna and Laura if they have not been released by that date.
7:53 pm on June 17th, 2009 7
[...] the Day: Calumny Filed under: North Korea, languages — extrakorea @ 1:53 am Thanks to ROK Drop, we now know why North Korea sentenced two American journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, to twelve [...]
9:23 pm on June 17th, 2009 8
ROK Drop valuable links are so useful! I visited Korea scholar "Ask A Korean" for help with translation of the KCNA report's paragraph containg the name of the guide. "The Korean" promptly replied:
On March 17 at 6 o'clock, Mitch Koss, Laura Ling and Seung-Eun Lee, following the guide of Kim Sung-Cheol to whom they were introduced by Chun Ki-Won, crossed the frozen Tumen river from China's Domun-shi, Woljeong-jin. After reaching our shore, they recorded with a narration "We have just entered within North Korean borders without permission" as they filmed the surroundings with a video camera. They even picked up a rock in their pocket as a memento of the trespass.
So why am I reposting this when JoongAn Daily already broke the story? Because now "The Korean" at "Ask a Korean" has breaking news of his own: an interview with the North Korean sentry who caught the American stone collectors!
http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2009/06/ask-korean…
Ask a Korean! News: Joo Seong-Ha on Laura Ling and Euna Lee
Here is something for the followers of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Joo Seong-Ha of Nambuk Story has spoken to the guard who captured the reporters:
I tried to find out the circumstances of the capture. A border patrol officer
who is stationed in Gang'An-Li simply answered, "We saw the women roaming
around in early morning, so we caught them." I asked him, "Did you get
someone to lure them into crossing the border?" "You weren't waiting for them?",
etc., but he replied, "Not at all." … Also considering that the men
who ran away are keeping quiet, it does seem like it was the reporters' fault.
The Korean would not be surprised if North Korea kidnapped the reporters across the border, but Joo is a reputable journalist with an extremely deep and wide connection within North Korea. Those who doubt him about North Korea do so at their own peril.
7:09 am on June 18th, 2009 9
Not that I doubt Spelunker, but where did you hear that Current employees shouldn't attend the vigils?
8:25 am on June 18th, 2009 10
Joel Hyatt went to the vigil in SF, according to the NYT.
10:02 am on June 18th, 2009 11
Gawker got an anonymous Current TV employee to talk about why they're silent. The employee said orders to keep quiet in public and online came from Current TV's Legal Department, and they were also told to stay away from the vigils.
That particular Gawker article preceded the vigil Chief Executive Joel Hyatt attended. Evidently Mr. Hyatt can do whatever he wants, after all he is the CEO. Wouldn't you suppose his solemn presence was meant to appease the Ling family? That's my guess.
4:27 pm on June 18th, 2009 12
Oh of course. I know I'd feel tons better, if I was Euna Lee's husband. (sarcasm face)
AP got a former employee to talk. Not that she said anything.
http://www.scsun-news.com/silver_city-business/ci…