American journalists could be bargaining chips for North Korea

A documentary critical of the North, filmed by a family member of one of the journalists, could complicate their case.

from the April 17, 2009 edition

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Swedish diplomats, acting on behalf of the US, which does not have relations with North Korea, have visited the two near Pyongyang. Current TV, based in San Francisco, also has an avenue of influence through Al Gore, half-owner of the network. Mr. Gore is believed to have communicated directly with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he knows well from their eight years in the White House– she as first lady, he as vice president.

The mystery of their capture

Their case is still more complicated, however, by the mystery of how they were captured.

One theory is that the women's guide, a Chinese citizen of Korean ancestry and a member of the large ethnic Korean community in northeastern China who was able to go in and out of North Korea without a visa, could have set them up.

It's still not clear if the two had crossed the line into North Korea, were halfway over the shallow river, covered with ice at the time, or if North Korean police dashed onto the Chinese side and grabbed them. North Koreans regularly cross the river, not necessarily to defect, but to look for food and other goods in short supply at home. They then return, often after paying off border guards.

Kim, the former UN official, says the guide was arrested in North Korea earlier for aiding defectors, was held for six months and then sent back to China.

People caught up in such circumstances, he says, "are normally released on the condition of working for them with foreign journalists," that is, to inform the North Koreans what they are doing and whom they are seeing.

The fear of betraying contacts, defectors – and the families they left behind in North Korea – haunts Durihana, a Seoul-based organization whose pastor, Rev. Chun Ki-won, was imprisoned for ten months in China some years ago for assisting defectors fleeing through China toward sanctuary in Mongolia. Mr. Chun introduced Ling and Lee to defectors, gave them contact names, and advised them of the risks of going too close to the line with North Korea.

"They didn't cover the faces of the North Koreans they interviewed," says Choi Song-jun, a Bible student who works for Durihana. "We really worry about it. We pray for them and for their relatives. Nobody knows what happens to them."

As for what happened to the Korean-Chinese guide, reports vary. He was initially reported to have been picked up by the North Koreans, then to have been held in China. He is now believed to be in Pyongyang .

One who should know more is Current TV cameraman Mitch Koss, who escaped when Ling and Lee were picked up. He left China after having been held by Chinese police but has avoided publicity amid efforts to get North Korea to release the two.

However they were captured, analysts say North Korean authorities will see a chance for advantage in a high-stakes diplomatic game and also for revenge for the National Geographic documentary.

"These two young ladies will be thrown into the bargain to see if they can extract some more," says Peters. "That's standard operating procedure for the North Koreans, to milk it for all they can. They recognize these girls as tools in the bargaining."

All that's to be expected, say activists here, from a system that Lisa Ling describes as "completely controlled by Kim Jong Il," where "finally it hit me – there may not be a difference between true belief and true fear." The question Peters and Kim ask is whether that's also "hit" Laura Ling and Euna Lee as they languish under guard, and interrogation, in a guest house near Pyongyang.

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