Imagine you are a member of the Ling family and on Sunday morning begin your daily “Google news refresh” routine with Laura Ling’s name. The first article that actually pops up is a Portuguese headline from Brazil:

“Uma sentença de morte”

Perhaps nobody in Ling family studied Portuguese but the language does sound remarkably similar to Spanish, so it’s safe to assume that most residents of California will not have to resort to Babel Fish to translate the horrific headline as “A death sentence”

Here is the 4th paragraph of the article, which details experiences in North Korean gulags, that finally mentions Laura Ling and Euna Lee:

“Nos gulags, os prisioneiros sofrem todo tipo de abuso, e entre 20% e 25% deles morrem todos os anos. E é para onde irão as jornalistas americanas Laura Ling e Euna Lee – condenadas na segunda-feira a 12 anos de prisão por ultrapassarem a fronteira do país ilegalmente – caso não haja um acordo diplomático com os EUA.”

http://zerohora.clicrbs.com.br/zerohora/jsp/default2.jsp?uf=1&local=1&source=a2544577.xml&template=3898.dwt&edition=12506&section=1014

Here is my intern, Google Translate, with some quick help on the translation:

“In gulags, prisoners suffer all kinds of abuse, and between 20% and 25% of them die every year. And that is where will be the American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee – on Monday sentenced to 12 years in prison for entering the country beyond the border illegally – unless there is a diplomatic agreement with the U.S.”

The reason I bring this article to the attention of Global Voices Online is because I was going to beg the world’s media to be more “cautious about speculating” when writing articles (and headlines!). Most people who are referred to as North Korea “scholars, experts, and watchdogs” seriously doubt that the 2 Americans will actually stay in North Korea beyond Christmas. (Though why they choose a Christian holiday benchmark is beyond me.) Those same people also do not believe Laura and Euna will be asked to lift anything heavier than a folding chair, so the “hard labor” part of their sentence is not expected to occur either.

12 years? Hard labor? Do you REALLY think the American journalists will serve the entire sentence and be given shovels to help dig the next nuclear bomb test site? I’m not worried about giving anybody in Pyongyang any funny ideas, but I am concerned that people in other countries around the world will have unnecessary nightmares after too much Googling of gulag reports.

Here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qe24PHFXq8

The conversation about the 2 American journalists begins at 7:30 in the video and then later they joke about espionage. I’m sorry my French is not good enough to provide a professional translation, but maybe Global Voices Online can ask a European intern to translate the relevant material into English.

http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2009-06-09-voa54.cfm

据报导，一名安排两人采访行程的全姓韩裔牧师Chun Ki-won表示，两人从首尔飞到中国东北的延吉，下一站是辽宁省的丹东。

全牧师的朋友，住在洛杉矶的韩裔牧师申东哲说，全牧师和他因为多年来营救北韩难民，他们的电子邮件和电话都被北韩和中国监控，他相信北韩也因此掌握了两位记者的行动，所以等她们到达结冰的图门江时，趁机行动。

申东哲说：“我知道大多数美国记者不可能那么不理性自己跑进北韩领土，但这两位记者可能靠边境太近了，而北韩一直在监视他们，就像监视我和全牧师一样，等她们靠得够近的时候，就把她们抓过去.

There are three things interesting about this article:

1. First of all, it mentions that Laura Ling and Euna Lee flew together to Yanji (China) from Seoul after meeting with Reverend Chun Ki Won. VOA does not mention a third Current TV journalist that accompanied them (Mitch Koss) at all throughout the entire article! There is also no mention of their local guide in China anywhere in the entire article.

2. Reverend Chun and another pastor who lives in Los Angeles (Shin Dong-chul), claim that both China and North Korea have spied on their e-mail and telephone communications for many years, so Reverend Chun believes North Korea monitored the moves of the 2 reporters in Yanji and waited for the opportunity to take action when they reached the ice of the frozen Tumen River. (Once again no mention of the fact that 2 more people were present on the day of the women’s capture; Mitch and their guide)

3. Shin Dong-chul goes on to say: “I know most American reporters would not be so irrational as to go onto North Korean territory, but maybe these two reporters got too close to the boundary. Plus North Korea was monitoring them, just like they monitor me and Reverend Chun, waiting until they (the two women) got too close and then grabbing them.” (The Chinese phrase “把她们抓过去” means that the women were grabbed and pulled over. )

Why would VOA publish an article in Chinese about this story involving Current TV’s reporters and not mention Mitch Koss or the local guide that accompanied them in China? If the target audience is China’s citizens, wouldn’t they be interested in hearing about a citizen of China who was an eyewitness to this intriguing international incident?
And is Mitch Koss such a big secret that the Voice of America dare not voice his name?

Do you still think there could be more than one way?
Do you really believe the Current TV crew woke up at 4 a.m. on March 17 and together decided it might be really cool to take a sunrise stroll along the Tumen River and try to film an interview with a North Korean sentry?

As you wish: regardless of how Mitch Koss evaded capture and the two female reporters he left on the Tumen River battlefield got into this mess, …have I given any thought on how Laura and Euna can be released?
Yes, it’s actually very simple: Al Gore has to go to Pyongyang on a “hu-monetary-ian” mission and buy them back. He’ll pay a price likely 100 times more than what Kim Jong-il paid the Yanji guide for them. They’ve already got at least a US $10,000 hotel bill on top of that (separate rooms, mind you!).

http://ac360.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/10/video-north-korea-encounter/#comments

Guest Jim Butterworth talks about the area around the Tumen River including Yanji, where Current TV’s crew was on assignment.

Jim Butterworth: “…it is commonly believed that there are hundreds of North Korean agents who actually had infiltrated the Chinese side, which is almost entirely ethnic Korean .”

Anderson Cooper: “Why would they do that?”

Butterworth: “To capture not only refugees that had escaped into China… In fact there is a bounty paid to Chinese citizens that would turn in North Korean refugees but the bounty is actually 10 times that if they would turn in the activists that would help them or anyone that would assist them.”

Mike Kim; “… North Korea will send spies posing as refugees to infiltrate networks and as a result there have been people abducted… and it really threatens the work of NGO’s there.”

Spelunker: “So then it’s not unreasonable to assume that the ethnic Korean citizen of China that led Current TV’s crew to the Tumen River border on the morning of their departure from Yanji to Dandong could have been acting on an extremely high bounty after tipping off Pyongyang agents that 3 US passport holding journalists were in Yanji interviewing North Korean refugees.”

So, Solana, here is my question for you: Can you imagine the following cell phone conversation on March 17?

Guide: It’s me again!
NK agent: You have another refugee for us?

Guide: No, something better.
NK agent: A South Korean activist? That will be 10 times the usual reward…

Guide: What would be 1000 times the usual reward?
NK agent: 1000 times? You’re kidding; you funny guide. Who could be worth so much money?

Guide: How about 3 US passport holding journalists?
NK agent: Really? What are they doing in Yanji?

Guide: Interviewing refugees. They have taken video over the last 2 days. There’s more!
NK agent? More? What could possibly be better than that?

Guide: OK, are you ready for this? One is a female Korean-American citizen…
NK agent: Good, I can communicate with her!

Guide: Another one is the sister of Lisa Ling!
NK agent: LISA LING? You must be kidding? Are you sure they are related? WOW! Dear Leader Kim Jong-il will be so happy! Uh…golly gee… so who’s the third one?

Guide: The executive producer for a media company that is owned by former US vice president Al Gore!
NK Agent: *faints*
Guide: Hello? HELLO? You still there?

NK Agent: Oh. my. GOD!
Guide: Show me the money! Ha ha HAAAA!

1. 有报导称美国摄影师Mitch Koss和一名中国导游被中国警方拘留
2. 她们的同事高斯(Mitch Koss)与中国向导则被中国边界警卫拘捕
3. 另一名美国摄影师Mitch Koss和一名中国向导被中国警方阻止

To use the word “arrest” (逮捕) would imply that a particular charge was formerly brought against the guide.
It’s relatively safe to assume that the guide was let go just like Mitch was allowed to go home soon after the March 17 incident.
China is not known for investigative journalism, so don’t expect local media in Jilin province (let alone a reporter from anywhere in mainland China) to go snooping around Yanji in search of that guide’s whereabouts.
Nobody is more cautious than Spelunker when speculating on what really happened on March 17.
My analysis is based on legitimate media reports and familiarity with the situation on the China/North Korea border. (3 infiltrations, all successful, from China onto North Korean territory in 2002 and 2005.)

The frustrating aspect of monitoring this story is not so much the unanswered questions as it it the unasked questions. Nobody is asking “Who hired that local guide in Yanji?” Nobody is asking “What was that guide’s name?” Nobody is asking the South Korean activists familiar with that local guide in Yanji to elaborate on their suspicions.

While Hollywood paparazzi will follow Britney Spears and Mel Gibson all over Los Angeles, no L.A. reporter is bold enough to put a microphone in front of the mouth of Mitch Koss (who will refuse to comment anyway.) In fact very few major media news organizations in America even dare to mention his name. Go ahead and do a Google news search for “Mitch Koss” and see how many results you get!

What evidence would you like that could prove once and for all that the local guide in Yanji played a part in the capture of Current TV’s crew? Nobody knows where the guide is now and Mitch Koss won’t talk.

Here’s what we do know:
1. The Current TV crew was scheduled to go to Dandong on March 17, thus the pre-dawn departure time from Yanji.
2. The Tumen River border area was not on their original itinerary and they were warned not to go near the boundary.
3. In Yanji a bounty system exists for the arrest of North Korean refugees and activists who assist them.

Now I will add another informative post below that will allow you to draw your own conclusion.

“It was a writer for @timesonline, Ben MacIntyre, who noted a few weeks ago that the drama currently unfolding in North Korea was one worthy of Shakespeare. To wit, “Mad king (Kim Jong-il) attempts to secure succession for favored son (Kim Jong-un) by a show of strength, unleashing chaos.”

I am glad to see MacIntyre’s conjecture posted here on Global Voices Online as it supports my theory that Current TV’s crew were duped by the “trickery of a paid-off Chinese guide” on the morning that they were supposed to proceed to Dandong from Yanji. Somehow they took the scenic route or a detour near the Tumen River.

And where the hell are the Chinese? They’ve got the stick, do they lack the balls?

http://www.examiner.com/x-11780-San-Mateo-Moderate-Republican-Examiner~y2009m6d9-When-will-China-stepup