Euna Lee and Laura Ling, two American journalists, were captured near the border of North Korea and China. It is not clear if they actually crossed over the border, but they have been charged and sentenced, in part, with entering the country illegally. At the time, they were investigating a story on human trafficking. .
(Staff Photo By Associated Press)
They have now been sentenced to 12 years "reform through labor" which, simply put, means hard labor. If they are sent to the labor camps they will endure wretched conditions including little food and regular beatings. There are some who believe they will never be sent to the camps because North Korea does not want them to see or learn anything about its country.
Recently the U.N. Secretary, Ban Ki-moon, has attempted to negotiate for their release. Unfortunately he has made little progress. Both women have, however been allowed to call home and send letters through the Swedish ambassador. Both occurrences are highly unusual in the treatment of such prisoners.
Please see my Squidoo page at http://www.squidoo.com/jailedjounalists for more information as well as my newsvine blog at http://artambrosia.newsvine.com/ which is full of related articles and news stories.
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Comments: 4
We do need to keep this in the forefront. Thanks.
thanks for the reminder
Tracey: Lovely seeing you here! I visited:
http://www.squidoo.com/jailedjounalists for more information as well as my newsvine blog at http://artambrosia.newsvine.com/ ... and so enjoyed them. Thank you for this article of remembrance.