Ling and her companion could have been set up, to be used as a bargaining tool -- just as this reporter could have been detained. It's risky business.
Well, its more of the fact that they sent an Asian woman into a regime that has no qualms with raping women. It’s the whole insider/outsider thing. As a starved and desperate NK soldier, you can take a lot more liberties with a female that looks like you then a white guy who doesn’t speak your language and knows nothing about you.
The soldiers raped these women and NK is trying to hide it. They’re trying to make nukes as quietly as possible, and a couple of raped professional women aren’t going to help their standing in the world.