Loose Ends

Laura and Lisa Ling dined last week with Bill Clinton at the Almond bistro in New York and lunched with Hillary Clinton over the weekend at a branch of the Korean restaurant Woo Lae Oak in Vienna, Virginia. Quite the culinary capper to a summer that thrust two sisters, a former President and a current Secretary of State into a very tight diplomatic corner.

If I were to apply the same questioning mentality to these meals as I did to other signpost events that led up to Laura and Euna Lee’s August 4th release, I would be asking things like: Did Bill and Hillary both personally pick up the tab? Did either restaurant offer their guests a meal on the house? At the Korean restaurant in Virginia, did Laura get a fortune cookie, and if so, what did it say?

Filed under: Commentary, Euna Lee, Laura Ling

The Bluff Guide to North Korea

There is much to digest in the September 2nd @latimes Op Ed piece authored by Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

They were captured not on the North Korean riverbank that they crossed over to but rather on the Chinese side of the frozen Tumen as they tried to flee; they apparently mistook the hooting sounds and cell phone calls made by their Chinese-Korean guide (separate from other odd behavior) as a way of communicating with friendly North Korean associates rather than ruthless border guards; and they insist that they went out of their way to destroy evidence and protect the identities of interview subjects and those who helped them, in the latter case despite “rigorous, daily interrogations.”

Filed under: Euna Lee, Laura Ling, Mitchell Koss

Primed for an Op-Education

As we inch towards Laura Ling and Euna Lee’s promised Op Ed, I thought it might be useful to run through some of the questions I am hoping will be answered. The journalists’ guide is reportedly still in Chinese custody, while cameraman-producer Mitch Koss recently told @NYTimes that he will withhold comment until after Euna and Laura have their say.

1) What did the good Reverend really say?: Though Durihana Reverend Chun Ki-won has repeatedly claimed that he warned Ling, Lee and Koss against crossing the North Korea-China border when he last spoke to Euna, one has to wonder why a mother would ignore such advice if it was given. Recent revelations about the Reverend have cast further aspersions on the purity of his Seoul soul, so it all starts with what was said over the telephone to Euna in the pre-dawn hours of March 17th.

Filed under: Euna Lee, Laura Ling, Mitchell Koss

Black Friday

On Monday, August 17th, former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman Jr. departed for China to begin a much anticipated term as U.S. Ambassador to our largest creditor and the world’s newest superpower. Today, the South Korean newspaper @Chosun_Ilbo confirmed for many the worst possible fears in terms of fallout from the March 17th arrest at the Chinese-North Korean border of American journalists Laura Ling, Euna Lee and Mitch Koss: namely, that materials seized from the group led to a crackdown on North Korean refugees and those that help them.

Filed under: Euna Lee, Laura Ling, Mitchell Koss

C.S.I.: Yanji

As we await the first TV interview with Laura Ling and Euna Lee (most likely @current) about what exactly happened on the North Korean-Chinese border, it’s worth at this point briefly revisiting and clarifying what we do appear to know about the fateful circumstances of March 17th.

Filed under: Euna Lee, Laura Ling, Mitchell Koss