Kim Jong-Il Puts Young Female American Journalists on Trial In Desperate Bid for Attention

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT
by Christine Bowman

Does Dear Leader's Cry of "I've Got Nukes, and Young Americans, Too," Fall on Deaf Ears?

While President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton draw the world's attention to the Middle East and the upcoming 65th Normandy D-Day anniversary in France, can Kim Jong-Il please get a little respect and attention on the other side of the world? That seems to be what North Korea's "Dear Leader" is crying out for. He is rattling nuclear sabers and holding American hostages as he asks, "Can you hear me now?"

The Washington Post reports that according to North Korea's official news service, the two American journalists he has detained since March 17 were to go on trial today at 3 p.m. (2 a.m. Thursday EDT). A surprise turn of events that may signal hope for the journalists is that they were allowed a call home recently.

Laura Ling's post-nuclear-test phone call suggests to analysts that the case of the two journalists could be used by the North as a way to walk back from confrontation and perhaps reopen dialogue with the U.S. government. Lee was also allowed to call her family in the United States.

North Korea has a history of pushing to the brink and then seeking rewards -- food, fuel and diplomatic concessions -- for agreeing to sit down to talk. Permitting the phone calls was highly unusual for one of the world's most repressive governments.

^{Euna Lee (left) and Laura Ling (Right). Yonhap/AP photo.}

Until now, the detainment of the two women had barely been reported by the media, perhaps a deliberate State Department effort to work quietly and behind the scenes for their release. Former Vice President Al Gore, founder of the media company "Current TV" that employs them both, has been silent.

Once the phone calls were allowed and the trial announced, media outlets jumped in. The captives' families appeared this week on Larry King Live and The Today Show offering apologies to Kim on behalf of the journalists. Rallies in support of the women were held in Washington, D.C and other cities Wednesday night. As The New York Daily News reported, "Relatives urged the journalists' release, saying Ling suffers from an ulcer and Lee has a 4-year-old daughter, Hannah, waiting at home. 'She still thinks mommy is at work,' said Lee's husband, Michael Saldate.

At the time they were arrested, Korean-American Laura Ling and Chinese-American Euna Lee were working near the China/North Korea border on a story about North Koreans who flee the country. They've been accused of "hostile acts" and "confirmed crimes" and held for over eleven weeks so far. In 1996, then-Congressman Bill Richardson helped secure the release of a captured American accused by North Korea of spying and detained for three months. "Unfortunately, he committed suicide after I got him out," Richardson told CNN this week.

Again from the Washington Post:

"North Korea has left the door ajar," [according to Hong Jung-wook, a ruling party lawmaker in the South Korean National Assembly.] ... "Because the American reporters can be used as the trigger for bilateral dialogue with the United States, the North is not likely to mistreat them. The North Koreans will release the women when the timing is most favorable for North Korea's eventual purpose of engaging the United States."

Of course, such expressions of optimism must be balanced with the fact that Kim Jong-Il is widely said to be highly idiosyncratic and capricious. This week a story run in the United Kingdom was headlined "Mad Korean King Has Live Fish for Tea."

His former chef Kenji Fujimoto said: "He particularly enjoyed raw fish so fresh that he could start eating as its mouth is still gasping and the tail is still thrashing.

"I sliced the fish so as not to puncture any of the vital organs, so of course it was still moving. Kim Jong-il was delighted. He would eat with gusto."

Another pick up of the story was titled, "Kim Jong-il Eats Live Thrashing Fish With Wine At His 'Pleasure Parties.'"

Thus far, American media outlets have seemed less inclined to make hay with the story that an international nuclear ogre holds sweet young things hostage, while ogre's health fails due to stroke and diabetes and twenty-something heir-apparent waits in the wings and political trial with foregone verdict commences, as China threatens embargo of caviar, cognac, autos, fuel, expensive mushrooms, crabs, ginseng and gold.

No news there, or do American news outlets simpy feel the need to be responsible this time around? At BuzzFlash, we sincerely hope there's a reasonable explanation other than the US outlets' long-demonstrated affinity for stories about missing blond white girls.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT