North Korean soldiers detained two US journalists near the country’s border with China, South Korean news reports and a South Korean missionary said yesterday.
The journalists — Laura Ling (凌志美) and Euna Lee, reporters for former US vice president Al Gore’s San Francisco-based online media outlet Current TV — were taken into custody on Tuesday, said a missionary who spoke to them earlier that day.
Sources said the reporters were on the frozen Tumen River when they were taken by North Korean security guards.
South Korea’s YTN channel earlier quoted a government official as saying North Korean guards crossed the border into Chinese territory to arrest the two women.
The Reverend Chun Ki-won said by telephone from Washington that he was told the two women had been detained with a guide hired in China to assist them. Chun, a South Korean activist who helps North Korean refugees seek asylum, declined to reveal his sources.
In Washington, an official said the US State Department was aware of reports that two US citizens were taken into custody near the Tumen River in northeast North Korea.
“We are working with the Chinese government officials in the area to ascertain the whereabouts of the Americans in question,” press officer Fred Lash said. “We also have been in touch with North Korean authorities to express our concern about the situation.”
South Korean media first reported the detentions early yesterday.
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