Laura Ling and Euna Lee will finally tell us this week what happened on March 17 in China/N. Korea!
source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125107212590852551.html
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- TumenTourGuide
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The Current TV crew consisting of Laura, Euna, and Mitch Koss travelled to Yanji (China) in March to conduct interviews with North Korean refugees. They were assisted by Durihana Mission Pastor Chun Ki-won in Seoul, who arranged their China itinerary and referred them to an ethnic Korean local guide that led them to the border. They also had cooperation from Durihana's Pastor Lee Chan-woo in Yanji, who facilitated reports at an orphanage and interviews with female North Korean refugees.
What happened next has been the subject of speculation but here are the facts we have so far:
1. Laura and Euna were arrested after crossing the China border at Yueqing onto North Korean territory along the Tumen River. Yueqing is located south of the town of Tumen, about an hour away from Current TV's assignment in the city of Yanji.
2. A camera and video were confiscated by Chinese police from Mitch Koss, who escaped capture by North Koreans at the border area in Yueqing.
3. A camera and videos were also confiscated by North Korean border sentries and used as evidence in Laura and Euna's trial in Pyongyang.
4. The ethnic Korean local guide, a citizen of China, was sentenced to six months in jail.
5. Lee Chan-woo's house was raided on March 19 by Chinese police who confiscated his computer, camera and various documents containing the personal information of 25 North Korean orphans staying at Yanji orphanages, as well as the phone numbers and addresses of human rights activists.
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- tags:
- Laura Ling, Euna Lee, Mitch Koss, North Korean refugees, 2 more
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TumenTourGuide
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Radio Free Asia now reports that Mitch Koss was indeed standing on China's side of the border filming his female colleagues before Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested on North Korean territory. This supports the theory that Laura and Euna crossed onto a sandbar belonging to North Korea in close proximity to China's shore of the Tumen River, which could have been done on a whim though we await the forthcoming truth from Laura's editorial this week.
However it is reported in this RFA article that the objective was only to gather border area footage, a task that could have been safely done in Dandong where they were scheduled to go on that fateful day.
http://www.rfa.org/english/news/korea/ChinaSeizedDefectorFootage-08242009094102....
SEOUL—Authorities in northeast China seized video footage shot by two U.S. journalists who were arrested by North Korea while investigating the plight of North Korean defectors in China, human rights workers said.
According to the North Korea Freedom Coalition, a cameraman working with Current TV journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling was still on the Chinese side of the border when the two women were arrested, and the footage he carried is now in the possession of Chinese authorities.
North Korea Freedom Coalition Chairman Suzanne Scholte said that when Lee and Ling were arrested March 17, videotape was confiscated from their cameraman (Mitch Koss) by Chinese police and used to identify North Korean defectors.
Ling and Lee, who had admitted violating North Korean law in an attempt to shoot television footage, were pardoned and flew home in early August after a personal visit to Pyongyang by former U.S. President Bill Clinton.
Rev. Lee Chan-woo said that Current TV cameraman Mitch Koss had videotapes in his possession of Lee's orphanage when he was detained by public security bureau officials on the Chinese side of the border on March 17, and that police had told him during interrogation that they had seized them.
He said that in addition to covering his orphanage, the two reporters had also covered North Korean women defectors offering online sexual services via video chat.
Such footage could result in more security crackdowns for North Korean defectors in China, said Rev. Lee, who paid a U.S. $3,200 fine before being deported.
Chinese authorities also seized documents from missionary Rev. Lee Chan-woo, 71, of Durihana Missions, whose orphanage for North Korean second-generation defector children in China was filmed by Current TV's journalists.
"Everything was in the documents taken from me," he said, referring to detailed background information on the children in his care and contact information for human rights activists working with North Korean defectors in China.
- 2 years ago
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