Fate of reporters

With North Korea seeming willing to release two American reporters once their "desired conditions" are met, Pyongyang should not drag out the process, writes 'The Korea Herald'

The Korea Herald
Monday, July 13, 2009

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week asked North Korea for amnesty for two American journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of "reform through labor" last month.

Yuna Lee and Laura Ling were captured by North Korean border guards near that country's border with China on March 17. The two reporters were on an assignment for the San Francisco-based Current TV, researching the plight of North Korean refugees in China.

On June 8, the North Korean court sentenced the two women to 12 years of reform through labor for illegal border crossing and other unspecified "grave crime."

Last week, Laura Ling called her sister Lisa in the United States. According to Lisa, Laura admitted to violating North Korean law and asked the U.S. government to help. Lisa said in a television interview that her sister said that they are sorry for everything that happened. "We need diplomacy," Laura is said to have told her sister.

The next day, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged North Korea to grant amnesty to the two reporters, saying that the reporters have expressed "great remorse for this incident." The call for an amnesty is a shift from previous calls for the women to be released on humanitarian grounds. It means that the United States accepts North Korean court's findings against the two reporters. A U.S. State Department spokesman said that the U.S. accepts the conviction and is now calling for their release.

An academic who was recently in Pyongyang said North Korean officials told him that the United States should offer "a remorseful acknowledgement" of the journalists' reporting. The two are reportedly being kept in a Pyongyang guesthouse, meaning their sentences have not been carried out yet. The fact that the sentences against them have not been carried out yet indicates that Pyongyang will release the two reporters when their "desired conditions" are met.

North Korea is urged to return the two women to their families as soon as possible. Ling is said to suffer from a health condition and Lee has a young child waiting for her to come home. Pyongyang has sufficiently exploited the two women's capture -- it has Clinton accepting the North Korean court ruling and asking for amnesty for the reporters.

The process to release Lee and Ling should not be dragged out for too long. Nor should Pyongyang attempt to use the two women as bargaining chips in the ongoing nuclear standoff between the two countries.

Date Posted: 7/13/2009