Why North Korea's Jailing of U.S. Journalists Isn't Shocking

[tericared]

The nightmare that began on March 17 for the two American journalists kidnapped by the North Koreans along the Chinese border got worse Monday: Euna Lee, 36 years old and the mother of a four year old, and Laura Ling, 32, were sentenced to 12 years in prison by North Korea's highest court. Their crime: illegal entry into the country and "hostile acts." The sentence - "reform through labor" - raises the prospect that the two could be sent into North Korea's notorious system for political prisoners - the so called kwan li so, which are infamous for their mistreatment of prisoners.

"Malnourishment and beatings are common," says Kang Chol Hwan, author of The Aquariums of Pyongyang, his account of the ten years he spent as a prisoner in the North (Hwan's grandfather and other family members were also arrested by the security police in North Korea for "crimes" never delineated). The American journalists, employed by Current TV, a San Francisco-based TV network founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, were filming a report about North Korean refugees in China when they were seized by North Korean agents along the border between the two countries. The U.S. government immediately expressed its dismay, and called on North Korea to release the two women on humanitarian grounds. But it is hardly a foregone conclusion that the North will comply anytime soon. The two women have become yet another bargaining chip between Washington and Pyongyang, and "no one knows at this point what the North will want for them," says a diplomat in Seoul. (See pictures of North Korea at the polls.)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090608/wl_time/08599190334400;_ylt=Aja4wohdX0g298IKPtg_8kL9xg8F;_ylu=X3oDMTJzZ20yMGhlBGFzc2V0Ay90aW1lLzIwMDkwNjA4L3dsX3RpbWUvMDg1OTkxOTAzMzQ0MDAEY3BvcwMyBHBvcwMyBHNlYwN5bl90b3Bfc3RvcmllcwRzbGsDd2h5bm9ydGhrb3Jl

[twinsplus2more]

Jun. 8, 2009 at 1:15 PM

What will be shocking is both of these journalists surviving their time in the work camp.