Journalists Jailed in North Korea Face 'Hell on Earth'
BY James Gordon Meek
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - Hell on Earth is a North Korean "political offense village," where two U.S. journalists may wind up after being slapped Monday with 12 years' hard labor.
The inhuman prison camps where Current TV journalists Laura Ling, whose sister is ex-"The View" star Lisa Ling, and Euna Lee may be sent are harvesters of horror in the black heart of the totalitarian regime's countryside, North Korean experts say.
"They are a nasty part of a nasty country," said GlobalSecurity.org intelligence analyst John Pike. "They're not as bad as Hitler's concentration camps or Stalin's gulags, but they're a close third."
The veteran reporters were convicted of unspecified "grave crimes" after getting nabbed March 17 at North Korea's border with China.
T. Kumar, an Amnesty International expert on North Korea's abysmal human rights record, called the forced labor camps "extremely gruesome."
"There are no rest days. It's a backbreaking environment - with torture," he said. "They just beat the hell out of these people."
An aide described President Obama as "deeply concerned."
"We think the imprisonment, trial and sentencing of Laura and Euna should be viewed as a humanitarian matter," Secretary of State Clinton said. The regime should simply "deport them."
Some experts speculated that Communist "Dear Leader" Kim Jong Il's minions can only save face if a bigshot pol like Current TV's chairman, ex-Vice President Al Gore, flew to Pyongyang to negotiate the women's release.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who has negotiated with the North Koreans as a congressman and UN ambassador, is also mentioned as a possible intermediary.
If diplomacy doesn't work, Ling and Lee face severe hardship in camps that force inmates to do mountain logging, coal mining and stone quarrying for 10 to 15 hours per day. The worst of the camps is Kwan-li-so Reeducation Center No. 15, or "Yodok."
One former bodyguard of tiny tyrant Kim - thrown into Yodok after he tried to escape the North - told Time magazine in 2002 he saw a prisoner dragged by a car until his skin peeled off. The man was then shot to death before the assembled prison population.
An ex-camp guard who defected to South Korea told Agence France-Presse last year he was "trained to kill all the inmates in an emergency."
Inmates can fall victim to a wide array of punishments, according to Amnesty International, the UN and the U.S. State Department:
Attempting or abetting escape: torture with hot coals while being hung from a ceiling.
Pregnancy: forced abortion; infants born alive are killed.
Forgetting the words to "patriotic songs": beatings, forced exercise or public humiliation.
Unauthorized communications: beatings with iron pipes or wooden sticks.
"After the beating, cold water is reportedly poured over the prisoners' bodies even in the middle of winter," Amnesty has reported. Others are forced to drink water until their stomachs burst. But most who die in the camps wither away from starvation.
Reader Comments
provokative
this country north korea is reaaly provoking war which it will not accomplish coz we seen such states right from olden days of 1914 and 1939 wars which caused desastrous human deaths and surferings to the innocent ones. I wouldn't encourage a war but if at all N. Korea can't change the cours then we have no option but to crush it as it is dismantaling the world order.
Jailing of US journalists
One of the final acts of the George W Bush Administration was to pursue extradition proceedings in Ireland against Sean Garland a 75 year old Irish citizen accused of being involved in distributing forged US money alledgedly produced in North Korea. As a life-long opponent of US foreign policy he has little chance of a fair trial in the US. In properly arguing for clemency for Lee and Ling Americans should be aware of this politically motivated case.You can see the case at www.seangarland.org
Time for action
They are unfortunately political pawns no matter how you look at it. To try to separate the nuclear conflict from what is going on is futile since its the North koreans that are holding American reporters.
It's time to answer the North Korean's rhetoric with military action in targeted areas. The nuclear reactor and missile launch pads would be a good start. The North Korean's aren't suicidal. I don't think they'll dare invade South Korea because it would mean their demise.
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