KCNA: Ling and Lee Filmed Themselves Entering North Korea (Updated, Bumped)
[Original post, 16 Jun 09]
I’ll certainly reserve judgment until we see the videotape and until Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee can freely authenticate it, but if that’s true, it would be, well, stupid, even if it were done with the purpose of informing us about an important issue:
“We’ve just entered a North Korean courtyard without permission,” the Korean translation of their narration on the videotape said, according to KCNA. One of them picked up and pocketed a stone as a memento of the illegal move, the report said. [AP]
Again, I emphasize that this is KCNA we’re talking about. Even if we see video, I’d need to be convinced that it wasn’t staged after the fact.
At the same time, North Korea is also dispensing with the idea that it sentenced these women to twelve years in a labor camp not so much for the misdemeanor of crossing the border, but because of the subject matter on which they dared to report:
North Korea said Tuesday that two convicted U.S. journalists admitted to crossing its border with China and shooting video for a smear campaign against Pyongyang over its human rights conditions.
The official Korean Central News Agency released a detailed report “laying bare the facts about the crimes committed by the American journalists,” Chinese-American Laura Ling, 32, and Korean-American Seung-Un Lee, 36, who are reporters for the San Francisco-based Current TV.
“At the trial the accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts committed, prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK (North Korea) by faking up moving images aimed at falsifying its human rights performance and hurling slanders and calumnies at it,” the report said. [Yonhap News]
One should never presume that any official North Korean statement is true, but if it is, then an appropriate punishment for stupidity is no more than 30 days in jail and a good scare. The actual punishment for reporting the truth about North Korea’s atrocities, on the other hand, appears to be much more severe. Such things must be discouraged at all costs.
How long do you suppose it will be before we see more of Barbara Demick’s reporting from the border regions, or more documentaries like the heartbreaking BBC/Chosun Ilbo collaboration, “On the Border?” If there aren’t, it’s because terrorism works. And unless President Obama is willing to encourage more of it, he must hold North Korea accountable. Hey, don’t take it from me, take it from Tom Plate, no less. Plate is now questioning every reason why I’ve spent the last five years not reading him. Good for Tom Plate for being honest enough to do so.
Update: What KCNA’s report and Flickr pages tell us, but first, the Committee to Protect Journalists responds:
“These two journalists were convicted after a trial that was not open to international observers. There has been no transparency in the way North Korea has treated them and this report does not mitigate our concerns about their well-being,” said Bob Dietz, CPJ Asia program coordinator. “At the same time we are hopeful that these latest developments pave the way for the release of these journalists on humanitarian grounds.” [link]
I wish I shared their optimism. This plot has thickened.
Oh, and the original KCNA report, has some interesting details. For one thing, KCNA says the episode took place near Onsong (Google Earth images here), which is very far downstream on the Tumen River and not a place where I’d think the river would run dry in any time of year. I searched for images of the river border from as many different times of year as possible; here’s what it looks like in July, August, August, October, October, autumn, and in winter, when hell really does freeze over. None shows the river running dry, and it seems unlikely — though not impossible — that it would still have been completely frozen over and safe to cross in March.
What does this tell us? For one thing, I think we can rule out the possibility of an accidental crossing.
Another, more surprising, fact we learn from tourists’ Flickr pages is that apparently, tourists and Chinese boatmen have been fairly casual about floating right up to and photographing the North Korean side of the river in that area, including border guard posts. Would I do it? Hell, no. But apparently, this was an established practice in that region. If Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee merely floated up to the North Korean bank of the river, then for some reason, North Korea chose that particular time and those particular women to change the rules.
KCNA’s report mentions nothing of a boat, but it seems unlikely the women would have crossed the river in that area without one. I see just three possibilities: either they crossed the river intentionally (stupid if true, but hardly a proven fact); they floated up to the North Korean side with a video camera and were nabbed there (an excusable indiscretion, in light of past practice); or they were abducted and taken across (international kidnapping, hardly unprecedented for the North Koreans, but also not proven here).
As usual, there are some curious word choices in KNCA’s translation:
The investigation proved that the intruders crossed the border and committed the crime for the purpose of making animation files to be used for an anti-DPRK smear campaign over its human rights issue.
The preliminary investigation proved that they had a confab on producing and broadcasting a documentary slandering the DPRK with Mitch Koss, executive producer of programming of the Current TV, David Neuman, president of programming, and David Harleston, head of the Legal Department of Current TV, and other men in Los Angeles, U.S. in January.
A trial of the accused was held at the Pyongyang City Court from June 4 to 8.
At the trial the accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts committed, prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK by faking up moving images aimed at falsifying its human rights performance and hurling slanders and calumnies at it. [KCNA]
Whether the words “animation” and “moving images” represent some indecipherable and preposterous claim, or whether this is just typically stilted KNCA translation is difficult to say. What is clear is that the “crime” of which Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were really sentenced wasn’t so much the alleged crossing of the river but the anticipated content of the report, as revealed by Ling and Lee under North Korean interrogation.
The report ends with this cryptic statment:
We are following with a high degree of vigilance the attitude of the U.S. which spawned the criminal act against the DPRK.
Translation: The price of their freedom is ransom and censorship.
Update, 18 Jun 09: The Joongang Ilbo reports on the arrest of Ling and Lee’s “ethnic Korean” guide, although the report answers none of our most important questions about the circumstances of the arrest:
Chun Ki-won, a Christian pastor and human rights activist, said the guide, Kim Seong-cheol, was arrested in China after he managed to evade North Korean guards on March 17, the day Euna Lee and Laura Ling were caught near the China-North Korea border on the Tumen River while reporting on North Korean refugees.
“I believe the Chinese arrested Kim to question him about the journalists’ situation,” said Chun, who declined to provide further, personal details on Kim. [Joongang Ilbo]
This detail does seem less likely that Kim was a North Korean agent:
Chun said he introduced Kim to Lee and Ling, journalists for the San Francisco-based Current TV, upon their request in January.
“Current TV wanted to send Caucasians on this reporting trip,” Chun recalled. “But I told them reporting on refugees had to be carried out in secret and having Caucasians would make them stand out.
Chun said he arranged meetings with refugees for the journalists. “I told them never to cross the border,” he said.
The pastor added Lee, who was “fluent in Korean,” called him twice a day to provide him with updates. Lee and Ling were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor on June 8 for their illegal entry.
If Kim was working for the North Koreans, the North Koreans would already have paid him to give them Chun himself. Chun, for all his faults, is cagey enough to have outsmarted the North Koreans and the Chinese for many dangerous years, despite having become a major irritant to both governments. To me, that means (contrary to what one source had told me) that the North Koreans probably did not lure Ling and Lee to their capture. I hope for Kim’s sake that he’s not a North Korean himself. If he is, the Chinese will send him across the border, where he’d have a very bleak future.
If it’s true, then the two girls were very naive.
Wow, a mea culpa of sorts from Tom Plate. I scarcely believe my own eyes!
Does anybody take Tom Plate seriously? He calls himself the voice of reason and volunteers to go to Pyongyang “to help facilitate the ladies’ release”, then follows that up with this gem of wisdom: “One hopes that the presumably wiser heads at the very top of this government (North Korea) recognize their underlings’ miscalculation in snatching the ladies.”
WHAT? I know Plate’s name sounds like “Pu-ray-to” in Japanese but what’s the philosophy behind that statement? Can somebody break it down for me? Wiser heads? Underlings? Snatching miscalculation?
Meanwhile CNN continues to avoid mentioning the name of Mitch Koss even though they are quoting the same KCNA report that Associated Press, Washington Post, and other media outlets apparently had access to.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/06/16/nkorea.journalists/
“The KCNA report Tuesday said they had ‘covertly crossed the River Tuman’ into North Korea. The KCNA report said there were two unidentified men with Ling and Lee when they were arrested, but gave no further details. It did not say whether the men were arrested.â€
*** OK, thanks CNN, now here is the same part of the story from the Associated Press:
The reporting team from Current TV crossed the frozen Tumen River dividing North Korea and China three months ago and walked up the river bank — all the while recording their transgression, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
“We’ve just entered a North Korean courtyard without permission,” the Korean translation of their narration on the videotape said, according to KCNA. One of them picked up and pocketed a stone as a memento of the illegal move, the report said.
Two women — reporter Laura Ling and editor Euna Lee — were arrested in Kangan-ri in North Hamgyong Province, the report said. A third person, Current TV executive producer Mitch Koss, and their Korean-Chinese guide managed to flee, KCNA said.
*** How did the Associated Press obtain “further details†from the same KCNA report (video narration and the name of Mitch Koss) while CNN says there were no further details!
***Why does every single article CNN publishes about this story fail to mention the name of Mitch Koss? The search for clues to this mystery led me to Mitch Koss’ home page on the Current TV website with his own self-introduction:
“I started in the TV news and documentary business in the fall of 1983, and had a certain amount of luck. In January of 1993, I was sent to Russia with a 25 year old kid named Anderson Cooper. I decided that I could teach him everything that I knew and then he’d hate me and we’d make crap, or I could say, “okay, partner, what do you want to do?”
***As Arsenio Hall used to say: “things that make you go ‘hmmmm….â€
I will cautiously withhold judgement on this until we hear from the women themselves — as free persons outside of North Korea or China — but I have never thought it was a slam dunk case that they were snatched from the Chinese side of the border. I agree with all of Joshua’s caveats about why this release by the KCNA can’t be taken at face value.
Joshua also wrote:
How long do you suppose it will be before we see more of Barbara Demick’s reporting from the border regions, or more documentaries like the heartbreaking BBC/Chosun Ilbo collaboration, “On the Border?†If there aren’t, it’s because terrorism works. And unless President Obama is willing to encourage more of it, he must hold North Korea accountable.
When did North Korea’s key benefactor, China, from which this flood of reporting will take place, become an open and free society?
YTN’s video segment on the KCNA report didn’t show any actual footage from North Korean TV, which I assume is the original source as the Japan-hosted KCNA website doesn’t have a report with this information. Tuesday’s newcast won’t get posted until tomorrow on a Japan-hosted Chosensoren website.
International media frequently get KCNA reports a day before they’re published on the KCNA site for the rest of us hoi polloi. Check back tomorrow.
I’ve got the latest details from BBC Chinese.com; looks like Kim Jong-il’s matinee theater has enough film for a double feature! Now he not only has footage of Current TV’s crew narrating their own trespassing, one could assume the other tapes likely include interviews with North Korean refugees that Laura and Euna had conducted in Yanji (China).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_8100000/newsid_8103900/8103918.stm
æœé²œå®˜æ–¹æ–°é—»ç¤¾åœ¨å‘¨äºŒï¼ˆ6月16日）报é“，充公了一å°æ‘„影机和å…盒录影带。
According to KCNA’s report on Tuesday, a video camera was confiscated along with 6 video tapes.
From the beginning I wasn’t much interested in whether they crossed the border or not, because I didn’t see it as a justification for their being held.
Focusing much on whether they crossed or didn’t cross obscures the situation more than it clarifies – in terms of North Korea’s responsibility in the affair.
It speaks much to how stupid or not the reporters could be – but it can’t/shouldn’t be used as a measuring stick for whether North Korea was correct in holding them for a long time and then putting them on trial for major crimes against the state.
The crossing focus has a tendency to pull toward a false logic: that if the two are discovered to be guilty of an illegal border crossing – something illegal most anywhere in the world – then the North’s actions are justified.
That guilt on the part of the reporters means North Korea can’t be guilty for holding them.
That’s false and makes the crossing discussion have a natural tendency to be counter-productive.
The reporters can be completely guilty of illegally crossing an international border — and the North still despotic and wrong for holding them for any significant length of time –
— and NK is certainly wrong for putting them on trial for major crimes against the state.
In short, both the reporters and Pyongyang can be in the wrong…
But, we generally don’t tend to think like that… Guilt on the part of one party usually makes us consider the other innocent.
If it turns out that Laura Ling and Euna Lee deliberately crossed into North Korea with tapes of refugees in China, then they exercised extremely poor judgment, risking not only their own safety but the lives of the refugees and their helpers. This would explain why Current TV has been tight-lipped from the beginning and why the State Dept. has been cautious. I do not have a good feeling about this.
That’s right. IF true — and it’s still a big “if” — they would have created far more risk to others (ie., the firing squad) than to themselves. It in no way justifies imprisoning them for more than a few days, but it certainly ought to be a lesson for reporters to know what they’re doing before going into situations that risk the lives of other people.
Go toe-to-toe with Anderson Cooper today! At 10:00 Eastern Standard Time he will have family members Lisa Ling, Iain Clayton (Laura’s husband), and Michael Saldate (Euna’s husband) on his show AC360. You can leave a comment on his blog now:
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/16/n-korea-u-s-journalists-were-creating-smear-campaign/
My comment, which is similar to what I posted above at 12:06, is still awaiting moderation.
You can also go on his live blog once the show begins and interact with Anderson Cooper directly:
http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/
Please be sure to mention “Mitch Koss” somewhere on your comment, so we can see if the taboo name gets mentioned on CNN. Today’s show also features the argument for marijuana legalization, so unfortunately we may be sharing the forum with a plethora of potheads. Have fun!
thanks for the anderson cooper link.
while i’m leaving a comment about mitch koss, i want to include that david gergen should be quiet.
So far CNN refuses to publish any of the 3 comments I have submitted for AC360.
Here is the latest one, still awaiting moderation, which is inspired by David Letterman:
Spelunker’s Top Ten Questions For Laura & Euna’s Family Members:
10. Has Euna been allowed to call her parents in South Korea?
9. What could be the intention for Current TV’s crew to change their intention of not crossing the border?
8. Which Current TV reporter has a collection of stones? (According to KCNA, one of them picked up and pocketed a stone as a souvenir)
7. Wouldn’t now be a good time for Current TV producer Mitch Koss to clarify what happened, or do we have to wait for North Korea’s version of events to come out on DVD?
6. Does anybody know who hired the Korean-Chinese guide who escaped back to China along with Mitch Koss?
5. Do you think Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger should go to Pyongyang with Al Gore to twist Kim Jong-il’s arm and assist with the California residents’ release?
4. Do you think Alaska Governor Sarah Palin should go to Pyongyang with Gore and Schwarzenegger and demand an apology from North Korea?
3. If AC360’s viewers purchased Girl Scout cookies and sent them to Sweden’s embassy in Pyongyang, could the ambassador then deliver them to Laura and Euna?
2. Is there any chance that among the 6 videos confiscated by North Korean sentries one of them was James Bond’s “Die Another Day�
…and the #1 question submitted by Spelunker for tonight’s show is: After Laura comes home, do you believe she will ever eat Korean food again?
I think you’re trivializing this.
Seriously, I’m on top of this story. I’ve been monitoring and analyzing it from every possible angle. Check out Durihana’s bulletin board; I even have a post there!
I’m also a comedian.
CNN can’t stand me because I ask the toughest questions, but they also love me because I know how to make them laugh.
Not much gleaned from Anderson Cooper’s interview with the husbands and Lisa Ling on CNN. We learned that Sweden’s embassy in Pyongyang has still not been granted access to Laura and Euna since the trial. That’s about it. No hard questions from Anderson, in fact he even admitted that one of his questions was stupid.
Lisa Ling repeated her mantra about how Current TV’s crew “never intended to cross North Korea’s border” even though the KCNA report states that the confiscated video has them literally narrating their own trespassing like the late Crocodile Hunter.
One can only imagine…
“We’re crossing the frozen Tumen River, a dangerous area that serves as the border between China and North Korea. Now we are entering North Korea without permission… Our guide is saying that those North Koreans approaching us are actually refugees disguised as border sentries…”
Joshua wrote:
If it’s true (and I second the caveat on it being a big if), I’d feel less bad about having called them idiots.
Whether captured on the Chinese side or the North Korean side, I think they exhibited poor judgement in highlighting a part of the border they had gleaned from others as being a crossing point. Even had they not been captured, if such a report had been broadcast, they reasonably should have expected that it would have put others at risk.
Yonhap has updated the story in order to include new details:
http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/northkorea/2009/06/16/26/0401000000AEN20090616010200315F.HTML
Here are the juicy bits including information on the guide, who KCNA refers to as “guard”:
The Americans consulted with senior producers of their television station in January for the “anti-DPRK smear campaign over its human rights issue” and received U$$9,950 for the project, the KCNA report said. In their Chinese visa application forms, they reported themselves as computer specialists entering China for travel, it said.
With help from a guard introduced by Chun Ki-won, a South Korean pastor who helps defectors, the reporters collected “vicious stories” about North Korea at the Chinese border region and covertly crossed the Tumen River into the North at dawn on March 17, the report claimed. They were arrested on the spot, it said.
Yonhap News Agency updated their story with translations of KCNA’s Korean report. Here are 2 paragraphs that contain information not previously reported:
The Americans consulted with senior producers of their television station in January for the “anti-DPRK smear campaign over its human rights issue” and received U$$9,950 for the project, the KCNA report said. In their Chinese visa application forms, they reported themselves as computer specialists entering China for travel, it said.
With help from a guard introduced by Chun Ki-won, a South Korean pastor who helps defectors, the reporters collected “vicious stories” about North Korea at the Chinese border region and covertly crossed the Tumen River into the North at dawn on March 17, the report claimed. They were arrested on the spot, it said.
I have gone to KCNA’s Korean page and attempted my own translation using “Google Translate”. I think I might have found something else concerning the local guide who led Current TV’s crew (Mitch Koss, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee) across the Tumen River:
http://www.kcna.co.jp/index-k.htm
3ì›” 17ì¼ 6ì‹œ 미취 코스와 ë¡œë¼ ë§, 리승ì€ì€ 천기ì›ì´ 소개하여준 ê¹€ì„±ì² ì˜ ì•ˆë‚´ì— ë”°ë¼ ì¤‘êµ ë„문시 ì›”ì •ì§„ìœ¼ë¡œë¶€í„° ì–¼ì–´ë¶™ì€ ë‘ë§Œê°•ì„ ê±´ë„ˆ 우리 측 ëŒ€ì•ˆì— ì˜¬ë¼ì„ 후 ë¡í™”ì´¬ì˜ê¸°ë¡œ ì£¼ë³€ì„ ì´¬ì˜í•˜ë©´ì„œ 《우리는 방금 í—ˆê°€ì—†ì´ ë¶ì¡°ì„ ê²½ë‚´ì— ë“¤ì–´ì™”ìŠµë‹ˆë‹¤.》ë¼ëŠ” í•´ì„¤ì„ ë¡ìŒí•˜ê³ 침입기ë…으로 땅바닥ì—ì„œ ëŒë§¹ì´ë¥¼ 하나 주어넣기까지 하였다.
“On March 17 at 6:00 Mitch Koss, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee … …. under the guidance of Kim Sung-chul…”
Can somebody who can read Korean please help me with this paragraph because I believe it might be mentioning the name of the ethnic Korean-Chinese guide who was introduced by Chun Ki-won. Is the name of the guide “Kim Sung-chul”? If so, it would be the first time this person’s name has appeared in print!
Our diligent friend at ROK Drop did considerable research on several bridges that cross the Tumen River, including some of the more remote ones downstream:
http://rokdrop.com/2009/06/08/which-bridge-crossing-were-the-two-us-journalists-captured-at-by-north-korean-border-guards/comment-page-1/
We know the Current TV crew was scheduled to go to Dandong (Liaoning province) later that day, so it’s not unreasonable to assume this was perhaps an unscheduled stop along the way after leaving Yanji. However it’s still possible that they were talked into this idea by the guide, and that he chose this particular place at an appointed time in communication with North Korean agents.
That’s my original theory and I’m not ready to toss it in the garbage bin yet, but the stupidity of Current TV’s crew to narrate their own trespassing along with that awful anecdote of picking up a souvenir stone is leading me to begin questioning how whimsical they actually could have been. Despite this new information from KCNA, it’s still difficult to not believe Lisa Ling when she claims her sister had absolutely no intention of crossing the border when she embarked on this assignment from California. If the guide didn’t suggest it, then did the 3 journalists (Mitch Koss, Laura Ling, and Euna Lee) request the pre-dawn caper themselves? I’m still willing to bet on a bounty, using my own extreme rationalistic analysis, but when presented with new evidence of irrational behavior there is bad feeling in my heart that this could be child’s play rather than foul play.
Spelunker–you seem very on top of this. My questions are somewhat like yours, and I don’t think I’ve seen any answers.
Why are the other MSM reports cutting out the paragraph of KCNA release about the trip being planned since January with David Neuman and David H. the legal guy (who used to be head of Def Jam Records, so he’s not exactly an expert in what’s best practices in journalism)?
I’ve seem reports that the two women were dressed like refugees–was this some sort of “recreation”? That’s cheesy.
Why did Current send Euna Lee, a video editor with no field experience? Too cheap to hire a translator? And wouldn’t her South Korean dialect give her away?
Why did Current send Laura Ling–her sister’s misrepresentation of herself with the eye surgeon’s entrouage (which resulted in a National Geo. documentary–itself no work of genius) had to have put her and her sister on the North Korean’s secret police hit list?
I think “animation files” is a just a poor translation for video.
And working for the BBC and other big news and documentary outfits is a whole lot safer for a freelancer than working for a place like Current.
They had no helpers–crew was Mitch, Laura, Euna and the Chinese local hire.
Thank you, Belinda!
I will try to address as many of your questions as possible:
1. Other MSM reports
I can guess you may be wondering why Current TV staff members are seldom named in American “main stream media” reports on this story.
David Harleston is the one who ordered all Current TV employees to remain silent on this story, and not to attend the vigils as well. This is why nobody is allowed to interview key eyewitness Mitch Koss (executive producer), who has been quiet all along. My guess is that whenever mainstream media tries to verify Current TV staff involvement, they get the same two words: “no comment”
CNN appears to have a very strict policy on not mentioning the name of Mitch Koss on the air or online. My comments mentioning him are frequently censored on Anderson Cooper’s blog. If you read the home page bio of Mitch Koss on Current TV’s website then you’ll see a clue as to why this may be happening:
http://current.com/users/MitchKoss.htm
2. Women dressed like refugees?
I have not read such a report. Did that just come out today? Can you post a link for us?
It would not have been a bad idea for them to do so if Mitch was carrying the camera, but I don’t believe this particular caper was planned so carefully. Maybe they considered filming themselves crossing the border in some sort of refugee reenactment, but that’s just my speculation for now. I’d like to see the report you mention and check if there are any more clues about their guide as well.
3. Why Euna Lee?
Poor Euna Lee. Her first overseas assignment with Current TV is China’s border with North Korea. Theoretically it would have been relatively safe if they had just skipped the Tumen River border caper, which was not necessary at all for completion of their story (interviewing North Korean refugees in China). Current TV’s crew had already completed work in Yanji and were scheduled to go to Dandong on the day they were captured. Euna should have stayed in the vehicle with the videotapes and let Mitch and Laura film the border and pick up a souvenir stone for her. Obviously Euna’s language skills were the primary criteria for her selection, as North Korean refugees generally do not speak Chinese or English. On this trip Euna also accompanied Laura to South Korea first for part of the assignment before proceeding to China. Euna was raised in South Korea and her parents still live there, so I assume she may have seen mom and dad while in the vicinity of Seoul. An interesting question would be “Has Euna been allowed to call her parents in South Korea since her detainment?” We know Laura placed a call to her mother. Regarding Euna’s accent, I don’t believe she was brought along specifically to help infiltrate North Korea. She was only supposed to facilitate interviews with North Korean refugees in China. Too cheap to hire a local interpreter? It would be extremely difficult to hire a freelance interpreter in Yanji who would volunteer to interview North Korean refugees. Yanji actually has a bounty for information leading to the arrest of North Korean refugees, so Reverend Chun Ki-won (who helped Current TV plan their China itinerary) probably told Current TV in advance not to consider that option.
4. Why Lisa Ling’s sister?
It’s a fair question, but again we should not assume that Current TV’s original plan (or “intention” as Lisa is fond of saying) was to have Laura cross the border for this assignment. North Korean agents might have heard that she was coming to Yanji though, so for them it was just a matter of getting her on their turf somehow. I have visited Current TV’s website and seen other documentaries produced in China without Laura Ling as the reporter. (There’s a recent one called “Outsourcing Unemployment” featuring reporter Adam Yamaguchi and producer Mitch Koss.) Laura Ling previously did a Current TV documentary on prostitution in Beijing titled “China Sex Workers”, but that one has been removed from Current TV’s website for now. Here are a couple of links:
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/11/video-china-sex-workers-currentcom/
http://shanghaiist.com/2008/01/02/chinas_booming.php
Check out the quote from Shanghaiist about Laura Ling’s work on “China Sex Workers”:
“She also almost got into trouble with some local mafia (which brought back some nasty flashbacks of our own encounters with them a few years ago), but fortunately she got away with it and her tape!”
5. “animation files”
Yes, and there are other translation errors as well. The one I recall at the moment is how KCNA describes Current TV’s narration of their trespassing “We’ve just entered a North Korean courtyard without permission” Also, when was the last time you heard anybody say “calumny”?
Cheers!
Spelunker
It just has the feel of a set up. There was a political advantage to targeting these two that may explain why the two men weren’t captured. Ling for her sisters reporting and Lee for her ethnicity. Reporting from the border has been damaging to the DPRK in the last few years. A targeted snatch and grab gives on these two gives the DPRK political leverage with the US and causes journalists to step back from the border. It’s a win/win operation. Of course, I’m only speculating but this one abduction would accomplish several political goals. It’s something I’d think up if I was sitting around bored in Room 39 after a late night drinking.
With any luck Kim Jong Nam will fee the need for another Disneyland trip and we can exchange quid pro quo.
UPDATE! Breaking news! The guide’s name is indeed “Kim Seong-cheol”
Thanks to JoongAng Daily for getting Pastor Chun Ki-won* to tell the world his name:
Reporters’ guide arrested in China
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2906287
The ethnic Korean guide who accompanied two American journalists sentenced to a labor camp in North Korea last week has been arrested by the Chinese security authorities, said a South Korean pastor who organized the reporters’ trip in March.
Chun Ki-won, a Christian pastor and human rights activist, said the guide, Kim Seong-cheol, was arrested in China after he managed to evade North Korean guards on March 17, the day Euna Lee and Laura Ling were caught near the China-North Korea border on the Tumen River while reporting on North Korean refugees. I believe the Chinese arrested Kim to question him about the journalists’ situation,†said Chun, who declined to provide further, personal details on Kim. Chun said he introduced Kim to Lee and Ling, journalists for the San Francisco-based Current TV, upon their request in January.
* Maybe Pastor Chun simply got tired of seeing Spelunker post messages on his website’s bulletin board asking for the guide’s name so that I can “say a prayer for him”
http://www.durihana.net/board/list.aspx?tbname=bbs
I think your Google Images map location is off the mark. You’ve located Onsong city, the seat of Onsong-gun. According to the KCNA, the women were apprehended in Kangan-ri, a district in southwestern Onsong-gun. The nearest towns are Chon-seong and Sanseong. Kangan-ri is not located on Google Images but Chon-seong is visible. I noticed that this section of the Tumen River can be quite narrow in parts and that there are a lot of sandbars. There are also, not surprisingly, quite a few guard posts and some tunnels.
I posted my questions at CJR, and we’ll see if they allow them. Cooper wouldn’t accept mine either. I’m not saying the women did anything wrong, but there’s a certain amount of gonzo punk risk that I think is sort of stupid, and I don’t think that Current TV either informs their staffers or assesses the risks intelligently. Pity about the IPO.
Here’s the reference to dressed:
http://epicanthus.net/2009/06/11/who-is-mitchell-koss-and-why-isnt-he-talking/
“It appears that Koss planned to drive Euna Lee and Laura Ling along the entire length of the 880-mile-long North Korea-China border from Yanji to Dandong. He had made the 36-hour drive before… as a younger man.
But things got FUBAR at the Tumen, and revolutionary punks Euna and Laura, dressed up to look like North Korean refugees, were gone.”
The north Koreans have seized 8 video tapes showing refugees in China. This is the worst news and those people lives are now in danger along with their families. Wow Laura and Euna, talk about irresponsible.
Rev. Chun’s not the best source for producing advice. Sending two tall blonds would have better idea and that’s what more experienced network types would have done. TV reporting and producing aren’t secret activities–that sort of undercover stuff works in print and maybe sometimes in special investigations, but his naivite got them arrested.
““Current TV wanted to send Caucasians on this reporting trip,†Chun recalled. “But I told them reporting on refugees had to be carried out in secret and having Caucasians would make them stand out.â€
Standing out means you’re in full view, and the police/guards/bad guys can’t pretend to not know you’re a reporter. Oy.
listener, Let’s not be too quick to believe everything we hear on KCNA.
Spelunker, I’m in awe. Some fine digging you’ve done there.
Go to Wikimapia.org and put 온성군 강안리 in the search box. Kangan-ri is not labeled on the map. It is located between Jon-seong and Yeonggang-ri, which are labeled on the Wikimapia map. An approximate border location in Kangan-ri is labeled Chigyongdong.
The refugee disguise story makes no sense at all. Why dress two Asian women up as North Korean refugees and then pair them up with a white guy carrying a big camera?
Also, why on earth would Ling and Lee carry 6 or 8 videotapes into North Korea? Not impossible, I suppose, but not plausible that they’d want to have a bunch of bulky and incriminating tapes while doing something clandestine. We know from the reports that Koss was there at the time of capture and escaped. How? Did he swim? Did he take the only boat? If he ran, that would suggest he was on the Chinese side.
If this really happened the way the NK’s would have us believe, then you’d think the two women would have sneaked in alone, carrying as little as possible, without any obviously foreign looking companions.
Sounds fishy. But hey, this is North Korea we’re talking about. My point is that we really don’t know what happened.
No one shoots on those big Betacams anymore–they probably had a either a mini-DV cam or one of those small Canons. You can see the cameras they use in a number of Current online pieces. And the women could have have very small cameras. I’m surprised that they’d have actual tapes–as opposed to media cards–which might mean the NK are lying (quelle surprise). But if they start broadcasting them, that’s bad news for the people interviewed, etc. I wonder why the sudden “flood” of info coming out of NK?
The North Koreans may not have a precise term for memory cards since they’re not in wide use. What the North Koreans called ë¡í™”테프 may, in fact, be another medium.
According to the KCNA, the group crossed the river at Yueqing/Weolcheong, located at 42°52’59″N 129°49’39″E.
You’re right, we won’t know what really happened but there seems to be a blog consensus that if they crossed the border under their own free will then somehow they should take their lumps. It seems that there would be more sympathy and subsequent alacrity if Current TV or Koss came out and said they were in nabbed from China or mistakenly lured into the DPRK.
Blog consensus? LOL. Consensus that they should rot in a labor camp? Well, fuck that!
First, we’re all a bit quick to take the word of the world’s least reliable news source as gospel. Second, in what sense does the punishment fit the crime here? Let’s keep some perspective. On the one hand, I would oppose the payment of a ransom as much as anyone. If KCNA’s version turns out to be accurate, I join the “consensus” that it was stupid and quite possibly fatal to others to cross into NK, though other journalists have gone in “undercover” and gotten away with it. On the other hand, let’s not be so damn quick to consign these two wives/moms/daughters to die in a gulag just because of what KCNA says.
I do agree that Mitch Koss needs to tell us WTF happened here, but so could our State Department. It’s hiding behind the Privacy Act, but that excuse is nonsense. The Privacy Act only covers personally identifiable information stored under/retrievable by a personal identifier, such as name or SSN, and in any event, next of kin can waive it. Lame.
State ought to be making clear to the North Koreans that unless these women are sent home post-haste, we’ll hunt down every bank account they have on this earth and freeze it colder than Hillary Clinton’s smirk.
The refugees who have been filmed were probably arrested and sent to labor camps.
I agree with Joshua. Much of what we know about North Korea was communicated to us by people who took risks, and that includes journalists. I do not want to see the State Dept. make any kind of political or aid concessions. The KCNA is not highly credible, but its claims are plausible.
Have you had a chance to check out Google Earth yet, Joshua? Yueqing is a zhen, the Chinese equivalent of a Korean gun, and so denotes a rural district comparable in size to a township or small county. The river looks narrow in parts with sandbars, so it is possible that Mitch and the guide were able to run back across the river. The North Koreans may have been watching the group for a little while and were in contact with their Chinese counterparts in a coordinated effort to apprehend the group once they crossed.
Read the comments in the papers and blogs. It’s an eye opener. I don’t know where people think news comes from but they seem to be uniformly opposed to reporters taking risks. Especially women reporters.
Do you think that Koss’s and Current TVs quietness at the DoS’s behest? Do they want to orchestrate what and when things come out in conjunction with any diplomacy?
I think Current TV is quiet because the higher-ups know that this is f*cked up. I think it’s the legal issues that are keeping the company and everyone in it muzzled, not the State Dept. (So much for those wild hard-charging young news hounds up there–they’re all too scared to go on the record with even the New York Times. Getting fired for speaking up is no big deal, ya know?)
Maybe there’s some delicate negotiations going on, but I doubt it.
Even if the two crossed the border in pursuit of a story, I’m sure we all agree that the punishment hardly fits the “crime”. I’m not so worried about that part. I think the Current execs. (and I’ll include Al Gore) who sent them there need to man up–make some sort of vague statement of support and concern. How can that statement make things worse for Laura and Euna?
But if they remain silent, then no one can use anything they say against them in a court of law or public opinion. If I were Euna Lee’s husband, I’d get some loud and noisy lawyer, like Gloria Allred, on the job–Lee wasn’t qualified, wasn’t trained for this mission, and didn’t have the support or backup that is standard in the news industry.
I still don’t know what to think or if it really matters anymore where these two were when they were arrested. I was first told by a reliable source right after it happened that they were in North Korea when they were apprehended although I admit that just because we’re hearing this is so from the KCNA doesn’t mean they actually were. However, the silence coming from the State Department and Current TV certainly aren’t painting a picture of innocence for these two when it comes to where they were on the border.
I think the bigger “crime” in North Korea’s eyes is the content of their story. Having said that, I find it interesting that there are two different versions out there about what it is the journalists were reporting on. According to Lisa Ling during her media campaign, the two were supposedly working on a story about women being trafficked along the China-North Korea border. But from the beginning, we have heard that they were actually doing a piece on on North Korean refugees. Put that way, those are two different stories with the latter being especially sensitive to the DPRK. I’m curious as to what the real story was although I’m sure that also doesn’t really matter at this point as they’ve been arrested and sentenced without any transparency whatsoever.
Anyway, I’m still overseas in the land of slow internet connectivity so this will probably be my first and last time online until I return. I see I have a lot to catch up on already.
ROK Drop has a very useful link to a Korean scholar’s blog called “Ask a Korean”, so I asked “The Korean” a question and got more than what I hoped for:
http://askakorean.blogspot.com/2009/06/ask-korean-news-joo-seong-ha-on-laura.html
Ask a Korean! News: Joo Seong-Ha on Laura Ling and Euna Lee
Here is something for the followers of Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Joo Seong-Ha of Nambuk Story has spoken to the guard who captured the reporters:
I tried to find out the circumstances of the capture. A border patrol officer
who is stationed in Gang’An-Li simply answered, “We saw the women roaming
around in early morning, so we caught them.” I asked him, “Did you get
someone to lure them into crossing the border?” “You weren’t waiting for them?”,
etc., but he replied, “Not at all.” … Also considering that the men
who ran away are keeping quiet, it does seem like it was the reporters’ fault.
The Korean would not be surprised if North Korea kidnapped the reporters across the border, but Joo is a reputable journalist with an extremely deep and wide connection within North Korea. Those who doubt him about North Korea do so at their own peril.
“Reporters without borders” asserts that North Korea’s trial and publicized imprisonment of these two journalists is meant to show the world their intention to intimidate other journalists from doing their investigative duties re: the refugees and human trafficking.
In response, reporters should show up en masse “on the border” all along the Chinese-Korean border where stories like these are still happening:
A 26-year-old North Korean woman, Mun Yun-hee crossed the Duman or Tumen River into China in the dawn of Oct. 22 last year, which at that point was some 40 m wide, guided by a human trafficker. She was being sold to a single middle-aged Chinese farmer into a kind of indentured servitude-cum-companionship. Both of them wore only panties, having stored their trousers and shoes in bags, because if you are found wearing wet clothes across the river deep at night, it is a dead giveaway that you are a North Korean refugee.
Mun was led to a hideout, and the agent left. Asked why she crossed the river, she replied, “My father starved to death late in the 1990s, and my mother is blind from hunger.” Her family owed 300 kg of corns, beans and rice and sold herself for the sake of her blind mother and a younger brother. The middleman paid her 350 yuan, or W46,000 (US$1=W939), equivalent to half of the grain debt.
Joshua wrote:
If they were using 6-mm “mini DV” tapes often used in hand-held cameras for television work, they aren’t that big and six or even eight would fit nicely into the pockets of a winter coat you might be wearing in that region in March and you’d forget they’re there.
Not that they actually forgot, but I think (and this is purely speculative) these three were operating as if they were bullet-proof. I suspect (and this is purely speculative) they were working from the thrilling fear of being caught but without the cold, hard calculation of how to avoid it or what they should do to prepare for that possibility.
As an analogy, imagine the completely different viewpoints of a tourist at Panmunjom versus a soldier at Panmunjom.
Spelunker–how do you know about the travel plans they had for the story? I wish there was a way I could ask you questions off list.
Euna Lee called Pastor Chun Ki-Won on the morning of March 17 and told him that they were headed to Dandong. Here are two sources:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2009Mar19/0,4670,ASNKoreaJournalistsHeld,00.html
“Chun said he last spoke to them by phone Tuesday morning. The women told him they were in the Chinese border city of Yanji and were heading toward the Yalu River near the Chinese city of Dandong.”
Also I have a similar reference from an Associated Press article on March 31, 2009:
http://www.mercurynews.com/california/ci_11964480
Chun said the journalists headed to the Chinese city of Yanji, across the border from North Korea’s far northeastern corner, where they planned to interview women forced by human traffickers to strip for online customers. They also planned to meet with children of defectors, Chun said.
“Missing home,” Ling wrote on Twitter on Monday (March 16).
Chun said he spoke to the women by phone early the next morning (March 17) . They said they were heading to the Chinese border town of Dandong, some 500 miles from Yangji, and then on to the city of Shenyang. That was the last he heard from them.
Belinda, you can ask me any question here on “One Free Korea”. I am willing to share all of my information and sources.
Could the Rev. have pushed them into doing something risky? He seems like kind of a loose cannon.
Do you know anyone at Current–past or present? Isn’t any big media–Vanity Fair, NYT magazine, etc–doing a story about this?
I’m still waiting for someone other than wacko conspiracy guy Victor Trout to suggest that maybe Current’s not as innocent as it might be.
Belinda, if the Reverend is in the business of ferrying people out of North Korea, why would he push them into doing something risky that would potentially plug up an area where one could cross, once their report came out?
If Ling, Koss, and Lee did this, my guess is that it was their own idea to do so. At least Ling and possibly Koss. The Reverend or the guide (if he wasn’t in cahoots with the North) may have provided the means for the plan, but not the desire or the plan itself.
The last thing that Chun Ki Won wants is somebody captured and telling the North Koreans all about how he rolls. Doesn’t make sense to me, either.
It must be hard for big media to write a story on Current TV when everybody keeps getting the same 2 words: (drum roll please….) “NO COMMENT” You’ll just have to be content with anonymous Gawker contributions from current Current employees.
I’m waiting for more big media to go after Pastor Chun Ki-won. He knows more about the local guide Kim Seong-cheol than what he’s revealed so far. Somebody needs to really interrogate him in pursuit of the guide’s story. Is Kim Seong-cheol the same “top guide” who National Geographic claimed was a former drug smuggler? I can assure you that Pastor Chun is 100% innocent; he even told Current TV’s crew specifically to stay away from the dangerous Tumen River border area. They were supposed to just interview North Korean refugees in Yanji and then proceed to Dandong.
I would also like to know if anybody in South Korea’s media has tried interviewing Euna Lee’s parents. Have they had a call from Euna since she was detained?