Euna Lee

'The World Is Bigger Now: An American Journalist's Release from Captivity in North Korea' by Euna Lee with Lisa Dickey (Broadway Books: 305 pp., $25.) . On March 17, 2009, Euna Lee, a journalist working in China on a documentary about North Korean defectors and her colleague, Laura Ling, were chased by soldiers and, according to Lee, dragged across the border into North Korea. They were arrested for "committing hostilities against the Korean nation," and imprisoned for 140 days.

North Korea said Friday that it was preparing to release an Orange County man who has been held since November, a concession to Washington that might be aimed a securing food aid. Jun Young-su, a businessman, had reportedly been charged with Christian missionary activity, which is illegal in the staunchly Communist country. The official KCNA news service reported Friday that the country "decided to release Jun Young-su on humanitarian grounds. " The brief dispatch did not specify when he would be allowed to return home.

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Sept. 1, 2009 -- The Los Angeles Times today announced the publication of Laura Ling and Euna Lee's first-hand account of the story that took them to the North Korean-Chinese border and the events leading up to their detention in a North Korean prison. The lengthy Op-Ed article will be published on latimes.com tonight and in The Times Wednesday, Sept. 2nd print edition, as well as made available to other publications tomorrow via the LA Times- Washington Post news service.

'The World Is Bigger Now: An American Journalist's Release from Captivity in North Korea' by Euna Lee with Lisa Dickey (Broadway Books: 305 pp., $25.) . On March 17, 2009, Euna Lee, a journalist working in China on a documentary about North Korean defectors and her colleague, Laura Ling, were chased by soldiers and, according to Lee, dragged across the border into North Korea. They were arrested for "committing hostilities against the Korean nation," and imprisoned for 140 days.

North Korea's sentencing of two American TV journalists to 12 years of hard labor Monday could imperil the Obama administration's already difficult goal of curtailing the authoritarian nation's nuclear weapons ambitions. If no deal is reached, the two women face a grim future in a brutal prison system notorious for its lack of adequate food and medical supplies and its high death rate. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV, were convicted by the nation's top Central Court of an unspecified "grave crime" against the hard-line regime after they were arrested in March along the Chinese-North Korean border while reporting a story on human trafficking.

The release came suddenly, heralded by a familiar face. In an emotional homecoming Wednesday at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, journalist Laura Ling told family members and friends about the moment when she and her colleague, Euna Lee, knew they were about to be freed after nearly five months of detention in North Korea. "We feared that at any moment we could be sent to a hard-labor camp," Ling said. "And then suddenly we were told that we were going to a meeting.

Former President Clinton arrived in North Korea today in a dramatic bid to negotiate the release of two American TV journalists sentenced to 12 years in prison for illegally entering the secretive nation earlier this year. Clinton, the husband of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, is the highest-profile U.S. official to visit North Korea in nearly a decade.

A clandestine network that helps North Koreans escape through China has gone deeper underground because of fears over what authorities in both countries have learned from the capture of two U.S. journalists who were released by Pyongyang this month, a missionary said today. When they were arrested in March, Laura Ling and Euna Lee were reporting on an underground railroad that has helped thousands of people escape from North Korea. "Their arrest reverberated through the aid network," said Tim Peters, a missionary in Seoul who oversees aid work in northeast China.

Two American journalists seized by border guards are facing "intense interrogation" for alleged espionage after illegally crossing into the country from China, a South Korean newspaper reported. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for San Francisco-based Current TV, were in Pyongyang's outskirts at a guest house run by North Korean military intelligence, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said, citing a South Korean intelligence official. In Washington, a State Department spokesman said North Korea had assured U.S. officials that the journalists would be treated well.

"Afghan Star," "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," "Diary of a Times Square Thief," "Food, Inc." and "Mugabe and the White African" are the nominees for the International Documentary Assn.'s 2009 IDA Awards. The award will be handed out at a ceremony at the Directors Guild of America on Dec. 4 hosted by Ira Glass of "This American Life." Nominations also were announced Thursday in short film and limited series categories. The documentary awards honor filmmakers and film journalists who "displayed conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth."

Noted journalist Laura Ling became an international cause célèbre last year when she and colleague Euna Lee were held captive in Kim Jong Il's North Korea for more than five months after being arrested while investigating human trafficking. More than a year after being released, Ling is marking her return to the airwaves ? landing at the home of a wholly different Kim. The former investigative correspondent for Current TV's "Vanguard" has joined E! Entertainment, the TV network of former sex tape queen turned scenester Kim Kardashian and other celebrity-oriented series that are snarky ( "Chelsea Lately," "The Soup")

More than a year after being detained for 140 days in North Korea while on assignment, journalist Laura Ling is moving to E! Entertainment. The journalist and author will host the network's hour-long documentary series, "E! Investigates," starting in December, the network said. Her first episodes will tackle topics such as the rise of teen suicides and the lives of military wives. Ling, whose sister is journalist Lisa Ling, has recently worked on Current TV's weekly investigative program "Vanguard" and also served as the vice president of Current TV's journalism department.

Former President Carter on Friday left the North Korean capital, Pyongyang, after negotiating the release of an American who had been imprisoned since January for illegally entering the secretive country, officials said. Carter went to North Korea this week seeking the release of Boston native Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a former English teacher in South Korea who was sentenced to eight years in prison for entering the North from China in January. North Korea's state-run media reported in July that Gomes had tried to commit suicide.

Arriving on a private jet with little fanfare, former President Carter landed Wednesday in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on a mission to win the release of an American held by Kim Jong Il's isolationist regime. Carter and his wife, Rosalyn, were met at the airport by top North Korean nuclear envoy Kim Kye Gwan, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. Carter is seeking the release of 30-year-old Boston-native Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a former English teacher in South Korea sentenced to eight years in prison for entering the country from China in January.

Former President Carter was expected to arrive in North Korea as early as Tuesday to negotiate the release of a 30-year-old American who has been sentenced to eight years in prison for illegally entering North Korea, U.S. authorities confirmed. Boston-native Aijalon Mahli Gomes, a former English teacher in South Korea, was sentenced in April for entering the country from China in January. North Korea's state-run media reported in July that Gomes had tried to commit suicide. "It is our understanding he will arrive in Pyongyang" on Tuesday, a U.S. government official said about Carter, who was believed to be flying through China.

"Afghan Star," "Anvil! The Story of Anvil," "Diary of a Times Square Thief," "Food, Inc." and "Mugabe and the White African" are the nominees for the International Documentary Assn.'s 2009 IDA Awards. The award will be handed out at a ceremony at the Directors Guild of America on Dec. 4 hosted by Ira Glass of "This American Life." Nominations also were announced Thursday in short film and limited series categories. The documentary awards honor filmmakers and film journalists who "displayed conspicuous bravery in the pursuit of truth."

If Current TV journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee hadn't followed their guide across a frozen river separating China and North Korea on a fateful morning in March, their story about human trafficking in the region would have likely drawn modest attention. Instead, Ling and Lee were captured by North Korean soldiers, creating an international incident that threw the work of their scrappy documentary unit into limbo and brought newfound attention to the program's brand of often-risky investigative journalism.