Posted on 06/02/2009 10:38:17 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Two US women journalists will go on trial in North Korea's highest court Thursday on charges that could send them to a labour camp, amid growing international tensions sparked by Pyongyang's nuclear test. The pair were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 along the narrow Tumen River which marks the border with China, while researching a story about refugees fleeing the hardline communist state. Pyongyang has said they will face trial for "hostile acts" and illegally entering the country, with the hearing to be held "on the basis of the confirmed crimes committed by them." South Korean analysts say "hostile acts" are punishable by a minimum five years' detention and hard labour. The families of Euna Lee and Laura Ling Monday broke their long silence to appeal for clemency and to urge the two governments not to link the case to the nuclear standoff. The reporters, who work for California-based Current TV co-founded by former vice president Al Gore, were allowed to phone their families in the US a week ago. "We had not heard their voices in over two and a half months," said Ling's sister Lisa. "They are very scared -- they're very, very scared.
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This probably isn’t going to end well. Hopefully, the old man kicks it soon, and whomever replaces him can use their release as a gesture of goodwill.
This is serious business.
Japanese and South Korean citizens, some not even anywhere near the border with North Korea, were snatched by aggressive N. Korean authorities and held, for something like 25 or 30 years, STILL stuck up there after a quarter of a century of appeals to Pyongyang from Tokyo and Seoul. So I doubt there will be any particular special treatment for them, even if they have the Al Gore connections and are Americans. We are not in Kansas anymore. North Korean border guards. They will throw rocks. They will start shooting. They will charge across the border into South Korea to chase a defector. They will bludgeon to death a US soldier trying to remove a stupid tree on neutral soil they say was planted by Kim il Sung himself at the DMZ. One should never get too close. They are extremely irrational and are under direct orders to try to grab a Westerner whom they feel is doing them harm or threatening them in any way.
One wishes them the best.
Megumi Yokota, snatched by North Korean agents, 1977. Still in North Korea, never returned to family (but claimed as "dead"):
Back in the days when the West had cajones the actions of NK would be considered an act of war against the US.
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