Laura Ling describes Korean jail hell
August 6th, 2009 - 7:40 pm ICT by John Le Fevre
Freed American reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee have returned to the US and spoken of their time locked-up inside a North Korean prison.
The two reporters, sentenced to 12-years of hard labor for illegally entering the country while filming a documentary in China, provided a graphic description of the 140 days they spent incarcerated.
According to Ling, the time spent in the North Korean jail “ have been the most difficult, heart-wrenching time of our lives.
“We feared that at any moment we could be sent to a hard-labor camp, and, then, suddenly, we were told that we were going to a meeting. When we walked in through the doors, we saw, standing before us, president Bill Clinton”.
Fighting back tears, the 32-year-old went on to say, “we were shocked, but we knew instantly in our hearts that the nightmare of our lives was finally coming to an end”.
Ling said she and Lee were held in isolation and lived in constant fear of being shipped off to one of the states infamous hard-labor camps.
According to Ling’s sister, Lisa, the pair were served rice peppered with rocks while in jail, kept apart, and had lost a lot of weight.
The pair were granted a special pardon by North Korean leader Kim Jong Il following a 20-hour private visit to North Korea by former US president Bill Clinton.
It was the former president’s biggest solo turn on the world political stage since he left office.
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