U.S. Journalists Sentenced in North Korea

Euna Lee and Laura Ling, both American journalists, were found guilty this morning (6/8/09)by the highest court in North Korea of a "grave crime" towards the North Korean people. The highest court does not take appeals. Now it is going to become a humanitarian/political issue. Lee and Ling were by the China-North Korean border reporting on human trafficking when both were arrested in March. The only thing "grave" about this was that they had a camera on facing North Korea in an attempt to show what crimes of humanity were being done. It wasn't clear if they accidentally roamed onto North Korean territory or were grabbed by the border. Either way, today's sentence for both Americans was heartaching for their families and an obvious show of power to the U.S. for meddling in its nuclear business and its random missle firings over Asia, and journalists from around the world. The sentence is 12 years of hard labor where they are expected to "reform." That is if they make it out. This is supposedly the highest sentence that can be given. North Korean camps, "kyo-hwa-so," are rumored (since the country is isolated we can only hear stories of those who've escaped) to be under the harshest conditions of hard construction labor, beatings, starvation, and about half of the prisoners who go in never come out alive. I think for North Korea it wasn't as important that Euna and Laura were reporters comparatively to the fact that they were also Americans and were there at the time of higher tensions than before between the U.S. and North Korea. Both journalists will certainly be used as bait, a bargaining strategy, chips on the poker table being dangled in front of the Obama Administration. Pyongyang has made its bet. Now it is our turn.