Many of you will remember two female reporters who were released from a 4-month plus imprisonment in North Korea the first week of August. Laura Lee and Euna Ling, two God-fearing American journalists, had been working on a series to portray the unfavorable condition on North Korean women in their native country. They made several contacts in China throughout the course of their lengthy documentary, including founders of a foster home in China and a Mission in Seoul. No doubt their footage provides a sad display of life many Americans may never understand. We will surely never know what their cameraman shot; Mrs. Lee and Mrs. Ling destroyed said footage in detainment. Their entourage came to a sudden stop when, after a brief early morning visit to the North Korean mainland, the two were captured and imprisoned until Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore came for a diplomatic rescue.
The results of their well-intenioned visit to the Orient: the reporters' own jailing, the mortal endangerment of their contacts (at least one house was raided and emergency deportations were arranged), and another less-than-favorable interaction with a country waging nuclear rebellion! I should mention Mr. Clintons nice dinner with NK's leader Mr. Kim.
The questions I ask you: how far does a journalists' obligation to the truth go? To the soil of North Korea, or not? . . .
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