Journalists Ling and Lee in Prison – North Korea in Famine and Poverty

The story of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, arrest, trial, conviction and imprisonment in North Korea has been published around the world. They have been sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. There are two stories here. One is the story of Ling and Lee. The other is the story they were seeking to film and to report about: North Korea’s refugees in China and North Korea’s poverty, famine and starvation. Humanitarian nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations are not permitted in North Korea. The journalists' plight hits me where I live not because they are Americans but because they are journalists seeking important humanitarian news about refugees and children who are not being served by the government and nongovernmental organizations in China and in North Korea. It hits me because of my long-distance connection to South Korea and journalism. I am asking bloggers to write at least one blog in support of their release. I have also provided for you information about what you can do now through Amnesty International and other petitions calling for their release.

The two journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who worked for Al GoreAl Gore's Current TV, were arrested in March, 2009 while filming a report about North Koreans fleeing across the Tumen River into China. North Korea claims the two illegally entered the country but other reports said the two had been filming from Chinese soil.

Here are two journalists who could not be so naïve as to cross into North Korea without knowing the consequences and danger. North Korea could have plucked these two journalists on China soil. We do not know if they did or did not actually cross the border or were attempting to. It was not unknown by North Korean officials that the two journalists were working and writing about North Korean refugees – a story few have written about, a story North Korea wants silenced. I have not seen any report that support personnel such as camera people were with them.

The story of North Korea’s new famine has been growing the past year or more. Estimates run as high as 6 million people in North Korea are now starving and suffering from the new famine. But who knows for certain? North Koreas population is about 23 million people. North Korea has been cut off from the world for over five decades.

Time Magazine reported the developing famine on February 25, 2008:

“Nearly one million people starved to death when a murderous famine gripped North Korea in the 1990s. Now, the most backward, isolated country in the world may be about to see history repeat itself. According to diplomats, United Nations officials and a variety of non-government organizations, North Korea stands yet again on the brink of a major food shortage. "The prospect of hunger-related deaths in the next few months is approaching certainty," says Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute and co-author of a just released study raising alarms about the prospect of renewed famine. In fact, one Seoul-based NGO, the Research Institute for North Korean Society, asserts that there have already been a handful of people in small, agricultural villages who have died from starvation.”

Is this the story Ling and Lee sought to bring the world, up-to-date news about the humanitarian issues of North Korea? Is this new famine larger than we can guess? How many North Koreans may die not just from starvation but also starvation-related illnesses? How many North Koreans are refugees in China?

Peterson Institute Senior Fellow Marcus Noland has written A Survey of North Korean Refugees in China (April 30, 2008):

“The famine of the 1990s killed up to one million North Koreans, or about 5 percent of the population, roughly equivalent to 15 million deaths in the United States were a similar event to happen here.

One of the safety valves during the famine was the large-scale movement of between 20,000 and 400,000 North Koreans into China. Thirty percent of the refugees report having lost family members to hunger. Nearly ten percent report having been incarcerated in political detention facilities, where they witnessed forced starvation, deaths due to torture, and even infanticide and forced abortions. A significant number of respondents were unaware of the long-standing international humanitarian aid program and the ones who knew of it almost universally did not believe that they were beneficiaries. This group’s evaluation of the North Korean regime, its intentions, and accomplishments is overwhelmingly negative—even more so than that of respondents who report having experienced incarceration in political detention facilities—and attests to the famine’s enduring impact.

Many of the refugees suffer severe psychological stress akin to post-traumatic stress disorder caused both by their experiences in North Korea and their fears of arrest and repatriation from China. These traumas, in turn, affect the ability of the refugees to hold jobs in China and accumulate resources for on-migration to third countries—necessitated by China’s insistence that they are mere economic migrants and its unwillingness to allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees access to evaluate asylum claims. Most of the refugees want to permanently resettle in South Korea, though younger, better educated refugees tend to prefer the United States as a final destination“.

History has taught us that suppression of the press typically follows and leads to continuing human rights violations - that is, that the importance of the press serves a humanitarian need, and that there is a direct correlation between suppression of the press and atrocities committed

Why should we and the world community be concerned about North Korean? It is not just the whole weird GOVERNMENT nuke and missile issues and "axis of evil" thing. It is because the world knows nothing about how much the people may be suffering (hence the work of Lee and Ling). It is because in the very recent past the people of North Korea suffered a massive famine in which hundreds of thousands of children died because North Korean government sought help from the world community too late .This is not just government versus government, the U.S. versus North Korea, for instance. This is a humanitarian issue and we need humanitarian concern and action about what is happening to the people of North Korea.

See the shocking story of Somali journalists below. Somalia is more than a pirate story. It is more than a story of gathering terrorists from Pakistan.

It appears the women have been separated in confinement. Laura Ling is of Chinese descent. Euna Lee, being an American Korean, may be seen as more of a traitor. One or both may be in a medical facility currently.

My personal long distance relationship with South Korea - Many years ago my then wife and I adopted a three year old boy from South Korea. My middle daughter teaches English at a South Korea University outside of Seoul My youngest daughter is a journalist. That is close enough for me to protest the failure of North Korea to release Ling and Lee.

This blog is not based on personal reasons. There are bigger issues for a global community where the freedom of the press, the freedom of bloggers is a necessary balance to governments everywhere. We in the U.S. receive very little news in the media and newspapers about what is happening in Somalia, Uganda, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Sri Lanka, Philippines, Jamaica, Congo, and other countries in Africa, Asia, Pacific Rim and South and Central America.

It is the press that should be bringing us the news about

1. diarrhoea-causing virus that kills some 500,000 children annually worldwide 85 percent of them in African and Asian developing countries,

2. the challenges of urbanisation and poverty reduction for millions of slum dwellers in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries,

3. that the number of malnourished children is higher than earlier estimated among thousands of recently displaced in Sri Lanka,

4. the number of children living and working in Gambia's streets with hundreds of children vulnerable to violence, exploitation and abuse,

5. the arrest of Swaziland's most prominent human rights lawyer, Thulani Maseko at his home on 3 June and charged with sedition,

6. that Peruvian police are seeking to conceal the bodies of Indians killed during last week’s confrontations in and around this northern city of Baua Peru

7. about the alleyways of Dolly, Indonesia's second-largest city, where it is not difficult to find thousands of young women lured by the prospects of a better life working as commercial sex workers and

8. about famine in North Korea.

It is the press and blogs that bring us this news, but not always in American newspapers and media.

I have provided links to the news sources in RESOURCES below

Ling and Lee are seeking the truth of what is happening to North Korean refugees. North Korea should release them immediately.

Secretary of State Hillary ClintonHillary Clinton is involved now in overseeing the crisis for these two journalists. But perhaps she sees too much about the government nuke and missile issues and "axis of evil" thing.

Swedish diplomats in Pyongyang are continuing their efforts to help secure the release of two US journalists being held by North Korea.

Bill RichardsonBill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico, is available for assistance with North Korea. That is not odd. Richardson has negotiated the release of Americans held throughout the world including one from North Korea in the 1990s Wikipedia gives us the story of Richardson’s successful negotiations for the first American arrested by North Korea:

“Evan Carl Hunziker (June 2, 1970–December 18, 1996) was the first American civilian to be arrested on espionage charges by North Korea since the end of the 1950-1953 Korean War. He was taken into custody by North Korean police after swimming from China across the Yalu River drunk and naked. He spent three months in custody there before being released and returned to the United States thanks to the negotiation efforts of then-New Mexico congressman Bill Richardson. However, he committed suicide by firearm in a Tacoma, Washington hotel less than a month later.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evan_Hunziker

Hunziker had a troubled past. But three months in a North Korean prison could have made incredible changes to his being. Neither Ling nor Lee will be the same after their experiences in North Korea, no matter how short their stay may be.

We must note that an Iranian-American journalist, Roxana Saberi, who was tried and sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran in April 2009 on charges of spying for Washington, was recently released.

ACTION YOU CAN TAKE NOW

Amnesty International is conducting an action campaign to free them. It is here that you can personally take action in support of Ling and Lee. Sign on to urge China, which is the major provider of energy and food to North Korea, and which has considerable leverage on the regime in Pyongyang, to call for the release of the two. Please join me in signing the message.

http://takeaction.amnestyusa.org/siteapps/advocacy/index.aspx?c=jhKPIXPCIoE&b=2590179&template=x.ascx&action=12431

You can sign a petition to North Korea sponsored by Care2 and others.

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/free-euna-and-laura

http://www.intent.com/mallikachopra/blog/laura-ling-and-euna-lee-petition

Join with the Facebook group “Detained in North Korea” who are letting their voices be heard.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=60755553149&ref=ts

Meanwhile in the U.S. the Atlantic reported on a trivialization of this story,

“Some interesting tidbits today on Intrade, the prediction market that takes bets on all things political, in addition to wine and art prices, with a reputation for accuracy:

- Intrade has begun taking bets on whether American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling will be released by North Korea before midnight ET on December 31, 2009 - which is probably more interesting from ethical angles than political ones. So far, 172 bids have been placed, and the closing price is currently 75, indicating a market consensus that there's a 75 percent chance Lee and Ling will be released.”

One last story in the news about journalists; it is not a pretty story but possible anywhere:

SOMALIA: No one left to tell the story

NAIROBI, 10 June 2009 (IRIN) - At least five Somali journalists have been killed and dozens more have left the capital, Mogadishu, this year, after receiving death threats - creating the spectre that some, if not all, independent media may close down due to lack of staff. There are 11 independent radio stations and two TV stations in the city.

We are in a very difficult and dangerous situation. We are being forced to choose between reporting on what is happening and our lives," Hamdi Kadiye, an executive member of the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUJOS), told IRIN.

The killing on 7 June of the Radio Shabelle director Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe has added to pressure on journalists in the capital.

"All we do is cover the story. We don’t side with any group, but the fighting groups want to silence us to make sure no one hears or sees the suffering they are causing," she added. She said many journalists had left because "they no longer felt they could carry out their duties". She admitted that Somalia's story may be lost in the process, but said: "You cannot ask someone to continue when you know their life is in serious danger."

(Snip)

A civil society activist, who requested anonymity, told IRIN that both sides in the conflict were worried and afraid that the media reports would be used against them "if they are made to appear in court to answer to their actions".

He added: "Thousands have been killed or maimed. Hundreds of thousands have been forced to flee their homes. Someone has to eventually take responsibility for that."

If journalists left and the independent media ceased to exist, there would be no one to tell the story of those suffering in the camps, in their homes and in hospitals, he said. "They are not only killing and starving the people, now they will make sure no one knows about it."

(End)

http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?Reportid=84783

It can happen anywhere.

FREE LING AND LEE! NOW!

RESOURCES

North Korea Again Headed Toward Outright Famine by Peterson Institute Senior Fellow Marcus Noland April 30, 2008

http://www.iie.com/publications/newsreleases/northkorea0408.pdf

Time Magazine, The Next Great North Korean Famine By Bill Powell/Shanghai Tuesday, May. 06, 2008

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1737780,00.html

Thomson Reuters Foundation, The Secret Famine of North Korea, 10-07-2008

http://www.alertnet.org/db/crisisprofiles/KP_FAM.htm

Time Magazine, Why North Korea Nabbed Two U.S. Journalists, By Jennifer Veale / Seoul Thursday, Mar. 26, 2009

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1888004,00.html

The Local, Sweden’s News in English Edition. Sweden aids US over North Korea journalists Published: 1 Apr 09

http://www.thelocal.se/18584/20090401/

New York Times, Why Iran Freed Roxana Saberi, May 11, 2009

http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/11/why-iran-freed-roxana-saberi/

The Korea Times, Clinton Urges Pyongyang to Free US Journalists, 06-06-2009

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/06/113_46362.html

The Guardian (UK), US journalists given 12 years' hard labour in North Korea, by Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Justin McCurry in Tokyo guardian.co.uk, Monday 8 June 2009

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/08/us-journalists-arrested-north-korea

Time Magazine, North Korea's Grim Prisons: What Awaits the U.S. Journalists? By JENNIFER VEALE / SEOUL Jennifer Veale / Seoul – Tue Jun 9, 2009

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090609/wl_time/08599190357200

The Atlantic, Taking Bets On North Korea/Journalists, Jun 9 2009 by Chris Good

http://politics.theatlantic.com/2009/06/taking_bets_on_north_koreajournalists_irans_election_energy_reform.php
The Korea Herald, Obama urged to do more for release of reporters, June 10, 2009

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/06/11/200906110081.asp

Latin American Herald Tribune, Peru Police Concealing Bodies of Indian Dead, NGO Charges, Caracas, Wednesday June 10, 2009

http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=336792&CategoryId=14095

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) The World Factbook

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/