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NKorea Sentences 2 US Journalists to 12 Years Jail

post #1 of 15
6/8/09 at 8:50am
Thread Starter 


Quote:
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea's top court convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in a prison Monday, intensifying the reclusive nation's confrontation with the United States.

The sentencing came amid soaring tensions fueled by the North's latest nuclear and missile tests. Many believe Pyongyang is using the journalists as bargaining chips as the U.N. debates a new resolution to punish the unpredictable country for its latest military threats.

In a cryptic two-sentence report, the North's state news agency said Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36 were sentenced after the five-day trial ended Monday. They were guilty of a ''grave crime'' against the nation and of illegally crossing into North Korea, the Korean Central News Agency said.

The court ''sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor,'' said the report, without giving other details. The phrase refers to a prison term, according to Choi Eun-suk, a North Korean law expert at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

He said North Korean law calls for transferring convicts to prison within 10 days after verdict.

Ling and Lee, working for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV, cannot appeal because they were tried in North Korea's highest court, where decisions are final.

Some analysts believe negotiations will now begin that will likely lead to the journalists' release.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2009...wt&twt=nytimes
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post #2 of 15
6/8/09 at 9:40am
God..... will someone please just wipe that stain called North Korea off the map?
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post #3 of 15
6/8/09 at 6:25pm
Does this get playtime in TV in the USA? I imagine this is fresh ammo to "test" Obama once more.
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post #4 of 15
6/8/09 at 6:44pm
I was watching the Larry King show on David Carradine's death the other night and they cut into it for a special report on the verdicts as soon as they were announced.
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post #5 of 15
6/9/09 at 12:14am
Were they well-aware of the potential risks of entering the country?
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post #6 of 15
6/9/09 at 1:18am
I was working in Changchun, Jilin province in northeast China just about 3 months ago. Jilin province borders North Korea, and throughout the city you can see many North Korean restaurants and a part of the population in the province are considered an ethnic minority (n.korean chinese). There are some mountains on the border called ChangBaiShan ( 长白山 long white mountain). I didn't go there myself (I lived there during 6 months during the coldest winter I'd ever experienced - and I'm from Canada!), but I was told that the border between the two, including the lake is not particularly well marked and that its possible to cross it easily and without realizing it. You can even take a boat ride from which you can see N.Korean patrols on the other side.
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post #7 of 15
6/9/09 at 12:20pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JXN1138 View Post
God..... will someone please just wipe that stain called North Korea off the map?

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Innocence Project keeps working tirelessly towards freeing wrongfully-convicted prisoners from death and other sentences, and have saved dozens upon dozens of innocent people, mostly poor and minorities, from executions and life in prison using modern DNA evidence.

But yeah, nuke North Korea! W00t!
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post #8 of 15
6/9/09 at 1:11pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob Singer View Post
But yeah, nuke North Korea! W00t!


...back into the Stone Age!
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post #9 of 15
6/9/09 at 7:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob Singer View Post
Meanwhile, in the United States, the Innocence Project keeps working tirelessly towards freeing wrongfully-convicted prisoners from death and other sentences, and have saved dozens upon dozens of innocent people, mostly poor and minorities, from executions and life in prison using modern DNA evidence.

But yeah, nuke North Korea! W00t!
I hope you are not claiming "Moral Equivlency" between the US and North Korea.
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post #10 of 15
6/10/09 at 9:11am
No, I'm saying let's not get up on our moral outrage highhorses and call for for the wiping out of an entire country because its leaders are evil dipshits.
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post #11 of 15
6/10/09 at 6:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jacob Singer View Post
No, I'm saying let's not get up on our moral outrage highhorses and call for for the wiping out of an entire country because its leaders are evil dipshits.
Agreed.
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post #12 of 15
8/4/09 at 5:32pm
HUZZAH!!! Hooray for Bill!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090804/...urnalists_held
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post #13 of 15
8/4/09 at 5:38pm
Kim Jong-il is a petty little man. All he wants is to play with the big boys.
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post #14 of 15
8/4/09 at 5:42pm
"All he wants is to play with the big boys. "
seeing as how clinton looked fully twice his size in that photo, now he had his chance. his little grey communist outfit was hilarious. as if he invited bill over to play 'world leaders' and was showing off the "evil dictator" costume his mom made him.

all these jokes would be funnier though if he didnt starve and torture people : (
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post #15 of 15
8/4/09 at 5:45pm
He was just ronery.
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