Rumors Persist That Laura Ling and Euna Lee Were Lured; China Uses Video to Launch Pogrom Against Refugees
It wouldn’t make crossing the border any less dumb, but it would make North Korea much more culpable:
“There is a strong suspicion that he [the guide] was heavily involved and it was a trap,” said an experienced activist who has led dozens of refugees to safety. There has been no word of Kim.
Such suspicions are bolstered by a first-hand account given to The Sunday Times by an American missionary who was warned by Chinese police a month earlier that the North Koreans were trying to capture a foreign journalist. In February a detachment of plainclothes Chinese officers detained the missionary as he took photographs not far from a tourist spot at a bridge across the river at the city of Tumen.
He was held for interrogation for several hours and later released without charge. During his questioning the officers warned him that the North Koreans were known to be hunting for a “foreign prize” along the twisting, narrow course of the river, where the border is erratic as it meanders along sandbanks and shallows. “They were after a journalist,” said the missionary. [Times of London]
I can’t quite bring myself to let go of this because (a) it’s what I’ve been hearing all along, and (b) the timing is just so convenient — two American hostages fall into Kim Jong Il’s hands right as he’s fueling a missile and preparing for a nuke test. What are the odds of that?
Meanwhile, my worst fears are realized:
“The Chinese police have started pursuing missionaries and NGO [nongovernmental organisation] activists helping refugees in China,” reported Lee Song-jin, a writer for the exile website Daily NK, in May. “Korean-Chinese helpers . . . are going underground. As the network between helpers and refugees has started shaking, the number of refugees isolated from security has increased.
The activists say there is grave concern about the North Korean claim to have obtained six videotapes and a camera from the women, who had been interviewing refugees in China before their arrest. North Korean and Chinese security agents are known to have cooperated in a search for refugees and their helpers in the cities of Tumen and Yanji. This led to dozens being sent back across the Tumen.
Laura Ling, Euna Lee, and Mitch Koss may owe a greater debt to the innocents they’ve harmed than they’ll ever be able to repay. I’m glad it’s so easy to discount suspicions that they were working for the CIA, because ChiCom and North Korean intel couldn’t have done better than these two.