This is just awful!
This past March, Lisa Ling‘s younger sister, journalist Laura Ling, and a companion, fellow journalist Euna Lee, were captured and detained by the North Korean military force. Though the exact reasoning is still unclear, it is to be understood that the women trespassed onto North Korea while working on a news story in China.
Since that time, Ling’s family has worked vigilantly, in private and in public, to urge the immediate release of both women, as Lisa’s sister suffers from a severe ulcer and Euna is the mother of a 4-year-old daughter.
Yesterday, the families received horrible news – as it was confirmed that the women were being sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp “for the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing.”
Crazy!
As the sad news reached the families of the courageous women, the U.S. government also has outreached to the North Korean authorities. U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelley said in a statement, “We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release. We once again urge North Korea to grant the immediate release of the two American citizen journalists on humanitarian grounds.”
The problem lies with the lack of communication between the United States and North Korea, as well as North Korea’s need for leverage due to the tension related to testing of nuclear missiles. Knowing the situation, Lisa Lang not only hopes for the safe return of her sister and friend, but also for the doors of communication to be opened because of this incident.
Lisa says: “We would champion the opportunity to have these girls be the catalyst for diplomacy. I think it could be really amazing. The problem right now is that our two countries don’t have a diplomatic relationship and so communication has been really limited. We are trying to encourage our two countries to come together and if this is the reason why they do, then we’ll take it.”
We send our best wishes to the women’s families and we hope for their safe return. Soon!
[Image via AP Images.]
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