Who Are Laura Ling and Euna Lee? Journalists Serving Hard Labor in North Korea

The convictions of US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee for illegally entering North Korea and their accompanying maximum sentence of 12 years hard labor has many of wondering what it must be like to be in their shoes. Of course, there is no way of knowing what they are going through, but we can take a moment to learn a little bit more about Euna Lee and Laura Ling beyond a pair of names in the headlines.

According to CPI.org, Laura Ling and Euna Lee were detained in mid-March while crossing a bridge over the Tumen river, which forms a border between China and North Korea. The purpose of their presence in the area was to do a story on North Koreans who reside in China and go back and forth over the fairly porous border. Since their detainment and subsequent arrest and conviction, Lee and Ling have found themselves as pawns in a global nuclear standoff between North Korea and the civilized world that has been fifty years in the making.

Euna Lee is a Korean-American journalist who was working for the cable station Current TV following earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film and Broadcasting. She has also worked as an editor on a variety of web series, television series and films. Laura Ling was 32 years old at the time of her arrest. She was born in Carmichael, California and was working for Current TV as well. According to IMDB, Ling had been working as a host at the channel since 2005. Laura Ling's sister, Lisa Ling, is a face recognizable to some as a journalist for Oprah and National Geographic Explorer program and has been actively speaking in the media for her sisters release.

The Facebook group page for Euna Lee and Laura Ling's release includes a variety of statements by friends and family of the convicted US journalists and is fairly moving to read. You can tell that they are choosing their words wisely through the advisement of professional international spokespeople, but the pain and worry is still clearly there. The site also includes a petition and contact information for American and global citizens to pressure Department of State and UN officials for a swift resolution to the unacceptable situation.

Sources:

http://cpj.org/blog/2009/05/euna-lee-laura-ling-families-speak-out.php
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?sid=e98d415b982eadeba6cd829801a7f389&gid=60755553149&ref=search
http://www.mahalo.com/euna-lee
http://www.mahalo.com/laura-ling
http://current.com/users/lauraling/all/0.htm
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2053030/