Laura Ling Tells Oprah About North Korea Imprisonment, Interrogation
Laura Ling, a Vanguard correspondent, producer and vice president at Current TV for five years, appeared on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" on Tuesday, along with her sister (and Oprah contributor), Lisa Ling.
Laura talked about the story that drew her to North Korea, her imprisonment, interrogation, trial and eventual release, and about the book she and Lisa have written, Somewhere Inside, out now from HarperCollins.
From the show's recap, she also shares the story of how her captors wanted President Barack Obama to serve as envoy in negotiating her and Euna Lee's release:
[T]he most important relationship Laura developed was with her investigator. "In the beginning, he was very, very stern. One look from him could send me into a state of nervousness and fear," she says. "But over time, I feel like I developed a relationship with him and that he wanted me to go home. And he was trying to convey information to me that I could convey to Lisa that might help me get home."
The interrogator told Laura that the United States needed to send an envoy to negotiate her release. "At one point, we were talking about who would be an acceptable envoy," she says. "And I was trying to say, 'Well, what about the chairman of my company, Vice President Gore?'"
Instead, President Barack Obama was suggested. "I said, 'Sir, with all due respect, if you think President Obama is going to come here, you might as well send me to the camp right now," she says. "And he said, 'Well, what about past presidents?' That's how President Clinton's name evolved."
Laura convinced her interrogator to let her call Lisa to relay the information. Soon, the sisters were the only channel through which the governments of both countries were communicating. "It was unprecedented [that] they let Laura call me," Lisa says. "That's how the information was getting across, and that's how eventually it was communicated from Laura to me that the envoy had to be Bill Clinton."
Hear more from Laura, and watch never-before-seen footage from her investigation about North Korean refugees, in a special Vanguard episode. "Captive in North Korea" will air Wednesday, May 19 at 10/9c.
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