Laura Ling, Euna Lee Held In North Korean Guest House: Report

[BlueJessamine]

Source: The Huffington Post

SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea has delayed sending two convicted U.S. journalists to a prison labor camp, in a possible attempt to seek talks with Washington on their release, a scholar who visited the North said in an interview published Friday.

Laura Ling and Euna lee, who work for former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media group, are being kept at guest house in the North Korean capital and have not yet been sent to a prison camp as called for in their sentences, University of Georgia political scientist Han Park said.

"I heard from North Korean officials that the American journalists were doing fine at a guest house in Pyongyang," Park told South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper. Park, originally from South Korea, arrived Thursday in Seoul following a trip to Pyongyang.

Ling and Lee were detained near the North Korean border with China and were sentenced last month to 12 years of hard labor for entering the country illegally and for "hostile acts."


Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/10/laura-ling-euna-lee-held-_n_229273.html

[David__77]

1. They won't send them to a regular prison.

I would be very shocked if they did that. They would cease to be useful then, and would become spokespersons against N. Korea upon their release.

[Mz Pip]

2. I think they

will be released. NK will diddle around for a while, posturing and politicking but I don't think they would want the bad publicity if those women end up dead in labor camp or live to tell about their experiences in a labor camp. Lose-lose for NOrth Korea either way.

[David__77]

3. If they release them, it's not a loss.

That would be a good thing for them. In the meanwhile I hope that they are being treated very well. I imagine that they are.

[Mz Pip]

4. That's what I meant

though I guess I didn't say it very well. Sending them to prison and have them either die or live to tell about it would be lose - lose. The only way NK can some out of this in any kind of positive light is to release them.