On North Korean “Justice”
This is not the lightest note to end on a Friday, but I have some time to respond at length so I’m taking it. Here’s Matt’s comment on the Yeah, What He Said blog:
Everybody has the right to live according to how comfortable they feel about risk.
I know that the circumstances surrounding their capture remain unclear, but these reporters decided to tackle a risky subject in a risky country with risky motivations.
Clearly these two reports did not properly weigh the risks (N Korea, border patrols, bad USA relations) with the other subjects in their lives (children, freedom, employment).
Take a look at the NYT information about these reporters:
“Ms. Lee, 36, moved to the United States from South Korea in the mid-1990s and had settled into a quiet, steady life of work and family; she and Mr. Saldate have a 4-year-old daughter. Mr. Saldate, a stand-up comic and actor, was the public performer in the couple; Ms. Lee’s sole appearance on the Current TV Web site is a five-second clip of her holding up a can of soda. “Euna loves Dr Pepper,” the clip is titled.
Ms. Ling grew up with her sister in Carmichael, Calif., where she excelled at school and, according to a friend, Marcus Marquez, charted an ambitious life. She graduated with a communications degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1998.”
Come on now! A MOM and someone with a COMMUNICATIONS DEGREE? That doesn’t sound like two people who should be messing around a militarized border in a country that isn’t very nice.
Luckily for these two fools this is a political battle and not a battle of justice or law. NKorea is trying to push weight around in the face of criticism around nuclear testing.
The question is: how will the USA respond politically?
I agree that the girls took a huge risk. Up until now, we didn’t know if they were trespassing or if they were abducted while still on the Chinese side of the border. In the past few days, it has been announced that they were well aware of the fact that they were on the North Korean side of the border. The Twitter account set up on behalf of Laura said this:
@LiberateLaura Laura Ling, 7/7: “We are so apologetic and remorseful about what has happened. But we did break the law and people need to know that.”
Here’s another confirmation on Gawker.
Honestly, I don’t care. I didn’t care when I knew it was a possibility, and I don’t care now. I don’t care if they played hopscotch from China into N. Korea. The punishment is still atrocious and completely unnecessary. A fine! How about a fine? That seems appropriate. Or why not do what we do: when Mexicans are too close to our border we . . . send them back to Mexico.
I understand that the girls took an enormous risk—especially now that we know they did, in fact, take that risk. But I also think we need journalists to take those risks. We need Anderson Cooper in the Congo, and we need Christiane Amanpour in Tehran.
This is how we know of the horrors going on all over the world. With these stories exposed, some people might be able help directly while the rest of us can pray, write letters, and stand in solidarity with our fellow human beings. I can stop buying Shell gasoline because of the way they treat the Nigerians all because of journalists who took risks.
Laura and Euna were doing a story on human trafficking. (The word trafficking makes my stomach turn). Their cause was noble, and I suspect they wanted to go into N. Korea to get a real glimpse into how the people are moved. Tragically they got caught. I don’t look at this as the two of them as breaking the law—I look at the laws in N. Korea and see that they are wrong. It is abhorrent to deny prisoners a fair trial and sentence them to 12-years hard labor–where the conditions are unsanitary and prisoners can be beaten if the guards happen to be in a bad mood*. My heart goes out to every North Korean citizen who has been sentenced to 20-years for stealing a candy bar or looking a Kim Jong Il cross-eyed.
But Laura and Euna are American citizens, and we, as Americans, can see how their punishment is undeserved. We live in a country where we have the right to notice that things are wrong. Someone noticed slavery was wrong. Someone noticed denying women the right to vote was wrong. Someone noticed segregation was wrong. And thank God they did!
That’s why I’m so impassioned by this story. These girls know what freedom is, and they have done nothing so offensive that they should have it taken away. Knowing this, the United States needs to go get them, and I, too, am curious as to how this will play out politically. I hope the silence means that there is a plan in the works, and not that people are forgetting about it.
I know that there have been many journalists who have been put in prison in other countries who were not released, or who we don’t even know about. Laura is fortunate to have a high profile sister. And as long as I know about it, I’ll continue to pass the word along and do what little bit I can.
*They have not yet been sent to the labor camp, and are being held in “decent” conditions according to Laura. Laura tells her sister, Lisa, that if she is sent to the camp that she will not survive.
July 16th, 2009 at 11:53 am
It’s easy to call these two brave, accomplished, and trained journalists “fools,” when sitting with your laptop and a latte as you update your blog (I’m talking about your link and not you, of course). If journalists aren’t “fools,” we don’t know what’s happening in the world.
July 16th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Again…not “accomplished and trained journalists”.
I don’t crack on your dirt merchant veganism, so don’t mess with my lattes!
July 16th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Fair. Fair. You did say that.