14 May 2010
So, I suppose some of you probably have questions for Laura and Lisa Ling: ask them here. My own comment is in moderation as I write this.
We are all necons: Colin Powell says that Kim Jong Il will face the judgment of history. It would have been better yet had Powell done less, as Secretary of State, to defer that judgment.
In China, that paradise of socialist equality, the price of female human beings is soaring:
Young female refugees from North Korea are increasingly becoming a commodity in China, where they are sold to farmers for up to 1,500 dollars a head, according to a Seoul campaigner.
The human trafficking is far from new but has become more prevalent as prices soar amid a shortage of Chinese women in the countryside, said Reverend Chun Ki-Won, head of the Durihana Association, which offers aid to refugees. [AFP]
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When he was campaigning, Prime Minister Hatoyama promised to close the U.S. Marine Corps Air Station at Futenma. In office, the impracticality of this promise has now caught up with Hatoyama, and he may now have to resign. A number of commenters here have drawn comparisons between Hatoyama to Roh Moo Hyun. What’s striking here is that Roh, who often treated the voters to soliloquies about how being president just wasn’t fun anymore, still had to finish his term; whereas Hatoyama could be forced out and make way for adult supervision. This is certainly a strong argument for a parliamentary system.
Perhaps I’m missing something- is the plight of North Korean women even brought up at the six-party talks?
Here is my interrogation of Laura Ling, currently awaiting moderation by CNN as I post this message. I know there’s a chance Lisa Ling’s husband might persue this post, so I will repost it here:
May 16th, 2010 2:17 am ET
Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Dear Laura Ling:
You claim that North Korean sentries dragged you across the border from China’s sovereign territory, but China refuted this statement. Will Mitch Koss clear this up once and for all on May 19?
You claimed that you did not know that you, Euna, and Mitch may have been led into a trap by your guide; do you still maintain this claim today and say that you actually believed you were crossing the Tumen River to conduct an interview with North Koreans? Please restate your original intent because I believe crossing the Tumen was not necessary for the refugee story that you were reporting on in Yanji.
(Current TV’s crew was supposed to continue to Dandong in China’s Liaoning province on the day of the Tumen River caper.)
Thank you in advance for all the details you can provide in response.
Sincerely,
Spelunker
Spelunker, I doubt you’ll get a response to that. Lee & Ling are simply just a pair of vain con artists and therefore your comment will remain in CNN’s moderation queue.
The good news is that these two misfits are fooling no one. We all know their desires to stardom and these two donkey women thought that by stepping into NK they would ultimately get their reward. That’s why there are using every opportunity to do a bit crying on TV and for good measure also released a stupid book.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ll be seeing a movie next about these two obsolete schoolgirls.
Spelunker, according to the two North Korean guards, they just got lucky that morning.
And it didn’t take long for Ernst to show up and crap all over the place, did it?
“We all know their desires to stardom and these two donkey women thought that by stepping into NK they would ultimately get their reward.”
Ernst, even if they do seek the limelight, it’s a stupid, ridiculous and paranoid thing to say that they both purposely crossed into North Korean territory with the intent of getting themselves arrested for a story. Then again, you’re a stupid, ridiculous and paranoid person, aren’t you?
Furthermore, given your racist, sexist, misogynistic personal attacks against Ling and Lee (i.e. calling them schoolgirls and making the point that they’re Asian women at every opportunity) and Lisa Ling, your accusation that they all lack concern for North Korean refugees is a glaring example of throwing stones in glass houses, not to mention that you’re quite lacking in the empathy department yourself. Your comments are also counterproductive and actually take away from legitimate criticism of Ling and Lee, but then it’s obvious that you don’t care about that.
But it’s your baseless charges against Curtis Melvin that are even more offensive. And overall, you’re just a bitter, nasty, unpleasant, mean-spirited, cowardly, pathetic excuse for a man who’s done nothing but insult other commenters (like picking fights with the “Christian muppets” and accusing them of saying things they didn’t, for example) and people in general.
Probably the main thing that matters with the Ling sister book (and related promotional activities) from here forward is the extent to which they are able to educate the rest of us about the trafficking of North Korean women, which, I thought, was the main point of the CurrentTV trip in the first place.
The Chinese media has done a rotten job (and does a rotten job generally) at dealing with unpleasant subjects like this, even though they are certainly discussed openly and often in Yanbian and along the Sino-Korean border, if not being the subject of intense public debate on the internet or in the press.
China Daily carried a tiny, tiny item on a new (April 2010) Chinese law to combat human trafficking; the Yanbian Public Security Bureau website carries the full Chinese text of the long and imposing regulations; and HumanTrafficking.org carries the text of China’s four-year action plan on the subject for 2008-2012.
My questions for Laura Ling have been published by CNN. Our friend Glans has added a similar inquiry.
Jeremy please cite your source for the North Korean sentry’s version of how Laura and Euna were captured. By saying they simply “got lucky†that morning isn’t that what the North Korean government would prefer us to believe? Do you honestly think the North Korean sentries would admit that they were tipped off by the ethnic Korean guide in China who led Current TV’s crew across the Tumen River at a remote area near the tiny village of Mapai in Yueqing county?
Mapai village source:
http://news.ifeng.com/mil/2/200906/0624_340_1217961.shtml
Here is a Chinese source from the town of Tumen’s Korean Ethnicity Association (“韩人会) stating that Laura and Euna were captured on the shore of the Tumen River near Yueqing: 两人是在ä¸å›½å›¾ä»¬å¸‚和月晴镇之间的图们江采访时被抓。 æ®æˆ‘所知，两å记者是在图们江江边采访时被抓。
My source is the second paragraph of this article from Chinese news website sina.com:
http://news.sina.com.cn/w/sd/2009-06-10/121117990001.shtml
Here is a Chinese article on March 20, 2009 citing a South Korean television source stating Laura and Euna were captured on the China side of the border:
ã€åŽè®¯ç½‘3月20日讯】韩国YTV电视网一则没有说明消æ¯æ¥æºçš„报导称，北韩士兵当时责令这两å女记者åœæ¢ä»Žä¸å›½å¢ƒå†…å‘北韩方å‘æ‹æ‘„，当女记者继ç»æ‹æ‘„时，北韩士兵就越界进入ä¸å›½å¢ƒå†…将她们扣留。
(This article has been removed from the Internet since August 2009 but I have it in my comprehensive archives.)
This South Korean news source, JoongAng Daily, is the only one in English that quotes South Korean intelligence and mentions the North Korean guards who captured Laura and Euna:
“According to the sources, the North Korean soldier at first assumed the journalists were Koreans.â€
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2902655
I’ve asked all the questions I need to ask. 😉
As I mentioned here, Ms Ling has offered me a copy of her book, which I promise to give a fair-minded read. Then I’ll give it to my mother, who is a fan of Lisa Ling’s on Oprah.
I am also very pleased to report and confirm that CNN decided to publish my comment which is roughly similar to what I have posted many times on OFK.
Even more pleasing to see is the fact many posters have arrived to the same conclusion and are thus very aware Ling & Li are nothing but a couple of lousy con artists and the world would be a better place without their silly faces.
Some posters rightly point out why anyone would buy a very unrevealing book about two cretins whilst for half the cost you’d can purchase Aquariums of Pyongyang which is obviously a far better read.
In her appearance on Oprah today, Laura Ling says she confessed to trying to topple the Pyongyang regime:
So how funny it was tonight when I saw CNN Back Story with Becky Anderson on TV and the mupp3ts Ling/Lee featured answering a question by a certain Joshua Stanton.
‘ Do you realize/regret the fact you may have endangered North Korean lives whilst filming on the border between China / Nk ? ”
Ling: ” Well yeah, ya know, I don’t know, but if we were then of course I would regret it”.
There were a few more sentences along the line, but they aren’t much worth repeating.
Whilst Laura sounds like having a very male voice, Lisa sounds as empty as her journalist credentials.
From Spelunker’s link:
At some point as you’re crossing the river, you’re already in North Korea.
Ah, remember when so many people had their doubts about them having willingly gone into North Korea at all, and they thought the North Korean guards might actually have snuck into China to capture them on the Chinese side in an incident that would be kidnapping? Good times. 😉
Laura and Euna’s alibi is that they were captured after running back onto China’s territory; claiming that the North Korean sentries actually chased them across the frozen river in some sort of international kidnapping caper as Kushibo suggests. Laura said she was grabbing bushes and anything she could hold onto as they dragged her away.
China denies that this scenario unfolded but won’t give any details from their own investigation. I was hoping Mitch Koss, who escaped the North Koreans but was later detained briefly in China, would clear this up once and for all but he did not speak as Current TV had promised for their May 19 program.
From the book, pp 15-16.
“Mitch…was around six yards ahead of me I remembered that I still had on the wireless lavalier microphone and that Mitch could still here me through the headphones. ‘Mitch, keep filming,’ I said as I continued to run. If we were apprehended, I wanted him to have it on tape that we had been taken in Chinese territory, Mitch turned back toward me, pointed the camera in my direction and then disappeared over a small hill.”
Did the whole thing get taped? The book says that Mitchell Koss turned himself into the Chinese authorities. Did he hide this alleged tape or do the Chinese have it?
The filming is only mentioned by Laura, it is not mentioned by Lisa that Mitchell taped the arrest.
Spelunker wrote:
I’m trying to find the discussion about how some originally believed the Nork guards might have actually gone onto Chinese soil to abduct these three without them ever having set foot on North Korean soil.
I can’t find it right now, but this discussion is a fun blast from the past, including JW’s ominously prescient portending of the sinking of the Chonan:
Robert D. Wexler, president of American Jewish University, recommends Somewhere Inside. To see his inverview with the Ling sisters, visit Jewish TV Network. Search for Ling, and then select Laura & Lisa Ling Interview.