Current TV reporters held in North Korea - Euna Lee and Laura Ling

North Korea Detains 2 U.S. Reporters
2009-03-19 19:47:22

Update: South Korean television channel YTV said North Korean border guards actually crossed into Chinese territory to arrest the two Korean-American employees of a California-based online news company, Current TV. The women, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were reportedly filming across the Tumen river and ignored warnings to stop. Foreign media need special visas to enter North Korea. Source: www.wowowow.com - Link

The Yonhap news agency in South Korea says the U.S. seems to be trying to bring the reporters home, but staying quiet about the negotiations due to concerns over the reporters’ safety. "A U.S. government official may visit North Korea to bring them back," one source said.
Update: China Investigating Detention of US Journalists
2009-03-19 18:07:55

China says it is currently investigating North Korea's reported detention of two female American journalists near its northern border with China.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said during a briefing on Thursday that the government has confirmed the reporters' dention and is currently carrying out an investigation.

The New York Times identified the American journalists as Laura Ling, a Chinese American, and Euna Lee, a Korean American.

A senior government official in Seoul said that the two reporters were detained Tuesday along the Yalu River while shooting footage of the North. They were detained after they refused to stop filming.
Source: KBS world - Link
-----------------------

Two U.S. reporters have been detained by North Korea along its border with China.

A South Korean source says the two female reporters along with an ethnic Korean guide were apprehended in Tumen, a Chinese city on the border with North Korea on Tuesday.

The two were identified as Euna Lee, an ethnic Korean, and Laura Ling, an ethnic Chinese, who both work for Current TV, a San Francisco-based cable TV channel. The guide was identified only by his initial A.

They were covering North Korean women who fled to northeastern China for a documentary.

The Chosun Ilbo in Seoul said they left Seoul for Yanji last Friday and were scheduled to leave for Dandong by Tuesday morning after completing their schedule in Yanji and Tumen.

An acquaintance of the Chinese guide told the paper that the guide had not been heard from since going out to the Tumen River at around 3 pm Tuesday.

The South Korean source said the group seemed to have crossed the border into North Korea by accident while shooting video footage of the country.

Meanwhile, the United States requested North Korea to return the reporters through the North's mission to the United Nations in New York, but the North has yet to reply.

A Korean American named Evan Hunziker was detained by the North in 1996 after swimming across the Yalu River from China into the communist nation. He was charged with spying for South Korea, but released after three months.

New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who at the time was a House Representative, was dispatched to Pyongyang as then-President Bill Clinton's special envoy to negotiate Hunziker's release.

Source: kbs - Link