The ethnic Korean guide who accompanied two American journalists sentenced to a labor camp in North Korea last week has been arrested by the Chinese security authorities, said a South Korean pastor who organized the reporters' trip in March.
Chun Ki-won, a Christian pastor and human rights activist, said the guide, Kim Seong-cheol, was arrested in China after he managed to evade North Korean guards on March 17, the day Euna Lee and Laura Ling were caught near the China-North Korea border on the Tumen River while reporting on North Korean refugees.
"I believe the Chinese arrested Kim to question him about the journalists' situation," said Chun, who declined to provide further, personal details on Kim.
| Or to shut him up, or at least to stash him away. He's not going to do well. |
Chun said he introduced Kim to Lee and Ling, journalists for the San Francisco-based Current TV, upon their request in January. "Current TV wanted to send Caucasians on this reporting trip," Chun recalled. "But I told them reporting on refugees had to be carried out in secret and having Caucasians would make them stand out."
This smells to high heaven. Euna Lee is ethnically Korean -- born and raised for part of her life near Seoul. Her parents still live there. It's pretty clear that she was on this trip for her language skills, since she's a film editor without other obvious reporting experience, and CurrentTV is a small operation with a tight budget. She's NOT caucasian. Kim may have been there to help with translations and to serve as a gofer and fixer, but the statement above is odd.
And furthermore, why NOT send caucasians? For example, send Katie Couric. She isn't going to skulk around, and skulking around is overated anyways -- the big blonde American can still get the story while in full view. And Katie will certainly be cautious with her well-toned skin and not do something stupid like cross the border to pick up a pebble. |
Chun said he arranged meetings with refugees for the journalists. "I told them never to cross the border," he said.
The pastor added Lee, who was "fluent in Korean,"
... called him twice a day to provide him with updates.
| More and more it's looking like the Norks knew the two reporters were in Yanji and decided to grab them: Ling because of the reporting her sister had done that had embarrassed the Norks, and Lee because she's South Korean. Kim they let go, and the remaining question about personnel was how Mitch Koss, the CurrentTV producer who was in the vehicle with the other three that day, managed to get away. Did the Norks not care about him? Not see him? Or did he do a Sir Robin? And if he ran, that meant they were on Chinese soil -- if they were on the Nork side, there was a river between him and China. |
Late Tuesday, North Korea charged the two journalists were trying to stage a "smear campaign." "At the trial the accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts prompted by a political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK [North Korea] by faking moving images aimed at falsifying its human rights performance and hurling slander and calumny at it," a report on the official Korean Central News Agency said. "We are following with a high degree of vigilance the attitude of the U.S. which spawned the criminal act against [North Korea]."
| I have an idea: why don't we have our Secretary of State send the Norks a message that they release the reporters or we find and close each and every foreign bank account they have? |
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