Protest in Guangzhou: Why would you burn garbage?
Obama in China: Long gone, and still headlinin'
Barbie Spa: For the cosmopolitan plastic beauty in you
Interview: Coco Zhao, from jazz to M. Butterfly
Week Around the Ists
After nearly two months of being detained in North Korea, Asian-American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling will allegedly be put to trial on June 4, according to the AP. The DPRK's Korean Central News Agency did not reveal any other details, including what charges the two face. If they are accused of illegal entry, they could spend up to three years in a labor camp. If they are found to have engaged in “espionage” or “hostility towards North Koreans,” they could add five to 10 years in prison onto their sentence. Lee and Ling were caught filming along the China-DPRK border in March. Both were working for Current TV.
Asian American journalists to be tried in North Korea on June 4
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
post to facebookComments (6) [rss]
Post a comment (Comment Policy)
Tips
Latest Video
Contribute
Latest Tip:
Pyjamas people are disappearing in Shanghai!
but I found this very cool book of Shanghai people in
[more]
Are they or are they not Americans?
If they were white, would you write, for example, "Norwegian and Polish American journalists to be put on trial"???
What are you implying? Because it sounds like you're saying that the author is being insensitive towards Asian Americans, or something.
http://i72.photobucket.com/albums/i195/switchbladesusie13_photos/thth687926.gif
Goddamn, can finally someone liberate this fucking country?
The fired missile was a cry for help, the officials are doing whatever they can to finally piss off everybody so that someone sets an end to this farce. Are they all to dumb and blind to see this? I feel so sorry for the North Korean civilians...
From several of the accounts I read, the women were seized on the Chinese side of the Yalu River (it's tiny and easily crossable in many places). If this is true, shame on China for not taking a more proactive role in resolving this; it would basically be a violation of China's sovereignty which, from my experience, seems to get people in this country pretty worked up. No doubt this case, in Zhongnanhai's eyes, has no benefit. Oops - except it could be a prime example of China sharing some of the global diplomatic burden and add a tiny bit of proof to it's proclaimed 'peaceful rise'. Cowards.
Second, careful what you wish for Jakob. There was an article on Foreign Policy the other day that mentioned numerous NORK-watchers think the internal power struggle going on at the moment in Pyongyang could lead to the country fracturing or imploding sometime this year or next. Even best case scenario, whatever that means, it would be a colossal disaster.
China is NK's only benefactor, even the USSR gave up on the Kim clan by the late 60s.
It is entirely plausible that NK friendly PSB/PAP/PLA people picked up the Americans and handed them over.
China does not want a united Korea under Seoul on its border, never has and never will. On top of that, China claims 30% of NK as its own territory. So with the collapse of NK (inevitable), the PLA would probably rush to "stabilize" northern Korea and not leave. SK's army is too small and it is unknown what the US, Japan and Russia would do.
But China's navy is no match for SK's small but modern and well trained navy, which may be the real reason why the Varyag is now in full dry dock after being moved out of Dalian.