Ground Report

PYONGYANG (The International) — US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were detained by North Korean soldiers patrolling the border between China and North Korea Tuesday, March 17th, 2009, were sentenced to “12 years of reform through labor” in prison announced the country’s state-run media Monday, June 8th, 2009. The journalists were allegedly investigating human rights abuses against North Korean women.

Ling and Lee, reporters for the American cable station Current TV, founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, were sentenced by the Central Court of North Korea for the “grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing,” according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

Ian Kelly, a U.S. State Department spokesman said the Swedish ambassador in North Korea has confirmed the sentence with the local authorities. “We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release,” Kelly said in an official statement.

The families of the two American journalists have rarely spoken publicly about the situation, evidently to prevent interference with diplomacy, however they have recently started speaking out. “When the girls left the United States, they never intended to cross into North Korean soil. And if they did at any point, we apologize,” Ling’s sister, Lisa, an award-winning journalist and CNN correspondent said. “My sister is an amazing journalist and very passionate about what she does,” she added.

Former U.S. Vice President and founder of Current TV, Al Gore, has yet to comment publicly on the case.

A controversial courtroom

Human rights group Amnesty International has openly criticized the legal procedures in North Korea’s case against Ling and Lee, and demanded the journalists be released immediately, “No access to lawyers, no due process, no transparency: the North Korean judicial and penal systems are more instruments of suppression than of justice,” Amnesty International’s Asia-Pacific director, Roseann Rife said in a statement.

The labor camps in North Korea are notoriously harsh, where, according to studies from Amnesty International, prisoners are subjected to demanding workloads and brutal beatings. The human rights organization also suspects that a lack of food and medical care is not uncommon in the camps.

Since the United States does not have formal diplomatic ties with North Korea, the country has been communicating with North Korean authorities as well as the two journalists through the Swedish mission in North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang.

The Swedish ambassador to North Korea informed the U.S. State Department that no observers were permitted in the courtroom. The U.S. State Department also received notification that the reporters were granted a defense attorney, however no specifics about the lawyer were given.

The Committee to Protect Journalists labeled the sentence “deplorable” and challenged all members of the Six-Party talks on North Korea to work together to ensure their release. The participants include Korea (North and South), China, Japan, Russia and the United States.

The free press organization Reporters Without Borders released a statement in support of Ling and Lee condemning their sentence, “These 12-year sentences are a terrible shock for all those who have repeatedly insisted on their innocence. The sentences are much more severe than anything we had imagined. The authorities in Pyongyang must urgently reverse this decision and allow Ling and Lee to rejoin their families.”

Negotiating with North Korea

A statement released by the White House Monday, June 8th, 2009, said that U.S. President Barack Obama was “deeply concerned” by reports of the journalists’ sentencing, which cannot be appealed. According to the statement the United States is “engaged through all possible channels to secure their release.”

The sentence of Ling and Lee follows the recent assertion of Hillary Rodham Clinton, U.S. Secretary of State, that the United States is considering placing North Korea back on its list of states that sponsor terrorism.

In an attempt to restore six-party nuclear disarmament talks, the United States removed North Korea from its list of states sponsoring terrorism in October 2009. This gesture resulted in an effort by North Korea to dismantle its nuclear facilities, however officials in Pyongyang have since restarted their nuclear complex, which processes nuclear fuel and plutonium.

Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico who has negotiated with the North Koreans over the release of American citizens held in North Korea as a congressman and UN ambassador has been mentioned as a possible intermediary. “This is a high-stakes poker game,” he said during a recent appearance on NBC’s Today Show, filmed in New York City. Richardson seemed confident that there may be other opportunities to achieve the release of the two American journalists. During an interview with CNN he explained, “In my past negotiations with the North Koreans, you don’t start negotiating for humanitarian release until after the North Korean legal process is over. It’s over now, so the discussions have to start.”

In response to claims that North Korea is using Ling and Lee as bargaining chips, Richardson noted that the North Korean government has not publicly linked the sentencing to the recent nuclear and missile tests in Pyongyang. “The rhetoric of the North Koreans has not been terribly harsh against the two women,” he told CNN.

Although the North Korean government has not linked the journalists to the nuclear discussions, the women remain imprisoned, receiving the maximum sentence of 10 years of hard labor for hostile acts and, according to analysts, an additional two years for illegal entry.

Ling’s sister Lisa recently highlighted the importance of persistence and negotiations by both the United States and North Korea, “We’re writing letters every day, and in terms of getting help, you know, it’s a challenging country because so little is known about it. Communication is really limited. So we’re just hoping that our countries can communicate on this issue, because it requires the efforts of our governments.”