By The two detained US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have officially returned to their families in California:
Two American journalists jubilantly reunited with family and friends early Wednesday upon returning to the United States with former President Bill Clinton, whose diplomatic trip to North Korea secured their release nearly five months after their arrests.
The jet carrying Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for Al Gore’s San Francisco-based Current TV, and Clinton arrived at Burbank’s Bob Hope Airport at dawn. Clinton met with communist leader Kim Jong Il on Tuesday to secure the women’s release.
Lee emerged from the jetliner first and was greeted by husband Michael Saldate and 4-year-old daughter Hana. She hugged the girl and picked her up before all three embraced in a crushing hug as TV networks beamed the poignant moment live.
Ling embraced her husband, Iain Clayton, as teary family members crowded around.
“The past 140 days have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching days of our lives,” Ling said, her voice cracking.
Thirty hours ago, Ling said, “We feared that any moment we could be sent to a hard labor camp.”
Then, she said, they were taken to another location.
“When we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton,” she said to applause. “We were shocked but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end, and now we stand here, home and free.” [Associated Press]
I’m sure they were pretty darn scared, but when you look at it rationally there was no way they were going to one of the North Korean gulags. The North Koreans knew these two would eventually be released and they were not going to do anything to them to harm them which they could report on when they got back to the US.
At some point I really hope they come out and tell the truth about what happened that day that caused this whole mess in the first place. If they did in fact intentionally cross into North Korea they owe the Obama administration and the entire country an apology for something so reckless and stupid. It will be interesting to hear what they eventually have to say on this subject.
Finally here is something I get tired of seeing repeated in these AP articles:
Discussions about normalizing ties with North Korea went dead when George W. Bush took office in 2001 with a hard-line policy on Pyongyang. The Obama administration has expressed a willingness to hold bilateral talks — but only within the framework of the six-nation disarmament talks in place since 2003.
So how come Bush took a hard line policy? Could have something to do with the fact the Pyongyang had a secret uranium program in violation of their agreement to disarm their nuclear program? It seems like that would be a pertinent bit of information to include not that I expect any better from the Associated Press.
10:40 am on August 5th, 2009 1
I don't know – I could picture a realistic possibility that the North could have kept them indefinitely and in one of the gulags.
I did not think it was probable, but I think it was definitely possible once the issue had gotten out of the media's attention — which it had before Clinton went over.
That was why I was against the "keep quiet" approach. I'd say there was at least a 25% chance NK might have held them long term — especially as they saw the US or Al Gore was not willing to pay a king's ransom for them.
11:18 am on August 5th, 2009 2
I hope no North Koreans get persecuted for having contact with these info-babes.
11:41 am on August 5th, 2009 3
"We feared at any moment that we could be sent to a hard labor camp, and then suddenly we were told we were going to a meeting," a tearful and emotional Ling said… "We were taken to a location, and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President Bill Clinton," Ling said, with Lee standing beside her.
She expressed her and Lee's "deepest gratitude" to Clinton and his "wonderful, amazing" team.
Ok. Very nice. I wonder if it would have been portrayed exactly the same by the media and if Ling would have been so obviously overwhelmed with emotion had it been some other former president. For example, can you imagine the stroy reading exactly the same with one name substitution, like so:
"We feared at any moment that we could be sent to a hard labor camp, and then suddenly we were told we were going to a meeting," a tearful and emotional Ling said… "We were taken to a location, and when we walked through the doors, we saw standing before us President George W. Bush," Ling said, with Lee standing beside her.
She expressed her and Lee's "deepest gratitude" to Bush and his "wonderful, amazing" team.
I highly doubt it. But what a love fest!
1:13 pm on August 5th, 2009 4
Bush would not apologize to anyone for anything. So, if all the North Koreans were asking for was a high level apology and W. was the only option, those girls would still be up there.
There are reports that NK chose to have Bill Clinton over other offerings, including Al Gore. Clinton had close relations with former SK president Kim Dae Jung (of Sunshine policy fame.) They met in May. President Kim probably still had contacts to facilitate the trip and release. I don't know that NK would have considered either George Bush's or Jimmy Carter to be high enough status for their interests.
1:31 pm on August 5th, 2009 5
You are wrong again JoeC, but I'm sure you are pretty used to it. I don't suspect you will man up.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/03/world/m…
2:09 pm on August 5th, 2009 6
Exactly my point.
3:00 pm on August 5th, 2009 7
I think it's NK's playbook to kidnap a foreigner when they're not getting what they want. Yes, it's possible these two crossed into NK but I'm pretty sure they were either close to the border or they got tricked into crossing a bridge. I think the U.S. State Department should issue a notice for Americans in China to stay at least xx miles away from the NK border.
7:29 pm on August 5th, 2009 8
I have to disagree with everything PARTAKE just partook.
1. This was not a kidnapping incident. By all accounts, the Current TV crew crossed the border onto North Korean territory. They were not dragged.
2. They did not cross a bridge. There is no bridge at the point along the Tumen River where they crossed the boundary, which is just north of Mapai village in Yueqing township.
3. Did the US State Department issue a notice for Americans to stay xx miles away from the Iran border? Americans who live in China know better than to cross the Tumen River into North Korea. We don't need to be issued a notice from the US embassy in Beijing and the State Department is not worried about us doing something so stupid that only a drunk mental case (Evan Hunziker) and Current TV's crew have ever been caught doing.
8:46 pm on August 5th, 2009 9
So far I have not heard a single apology from these two idiots. No apology to the people and families they video taped and may have condemed to prison or death and no apologies to the Amreican people for making us look stupid and costing us a ton of money. Couple of C%#n@s.
12:13 am on August 6th, 2009 10
Since they are employees of AL-GORE I would think HE owes the apology. Especially if they haven't the class to do so on a personal level.
2:46 am on August 6th, 2009 11
Ironically, if they hadn't been caught we'd all be discussing the video right now…Most probably coming to the consensus that North Korea is a shit hole.
2:51 am on August 6th, 2009 12
Do you ask for an apology from Rupert Murdoch every time a Fox News reporter is arrested?
8:38 am on August 6th, 2009 13
I guess I'm not up on FOX news as much as you are. I'm not aware of any arrests. However, in theory, yes. If an employee does something wrong or unlawful while working for an employer, many times the employer can be held legally responsible.
9:35 pm on August 6th, 2009 14
Well, their visit has allowed us to see that Kim is recovering from his stroke. I guess he will be in charge for a while longer.