"Extraordinarily relieved" for Ling and Lee's Release and Return!

For journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, todays homecoming at Bob Hope Airport is a solemn celebration of their survival. Early this morning, both journalists, and Former President Bill Clinton were greeted by family, friends, and former VP Al Gore. The journalists work for Gore's news network Current TV and have been detained since March 17, 2009 while working on a story. Both Gore and Clinton traveled to North Korea to work behind the scenes to help free these two brave women. In a statement Clinton said, "When their families, Vice President Gore and the White House asked that I undertake this humanitarian mission, I agreed. I share a deep sense of relief with Laura and Euna and their families that they are safely home," reported the LA Times.

Talk about risking your life for your work, these women spent the last 140 days detained in North Korea. North Korea people! They risked their lives for their work and I am floored in admiration of their bravery. Personally, being interested in global journalism myself, I am in awe of their dedication and bravery toward their craft. This story comes to end on a happy note as they return to the U.S.A. with their health, lives, and an unimaginable journalistic experience. These women have shown the rest of the world what it takes to be a journalist, no fear.

Emily Miller, another east coast intern, wrote about this on our blog yesterday if you would like more information about this story.

It's rare we hear good news out of North Korea, but today, there is reason to celebrate!

For North Korean female refugees in China the "life of an animal"

The recent sentencing of U.S. journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, to 12 years of reform through hard labor in a North Korean labor camp for "grave crimes" against the country has been met with strong reaction from journalists, politicians, and activists alike. Lee and Ling were captured while filming a documentary for Current TV about North Korean exiles who flee to neighboring China.

While their unjust arrest and sentencing has been covered greatly, few have discussed the reason for their visit and subject of their documentary. The Washington Post today did just that with a revealing article about the women who escape North Korea, sometimes on their own but often by human traffickers, only to be met with a grim reality and few resources to help them.

"North Korea regards them as criminals for leaving. China refuses to recognize them as refugees, sending many back to face interrogation, hard labor and sometimes torture. Others stay on in stateless limbo, sold by brokers to Chinese men in need of fertile women and live-in labor. Forced marriage, abiding threats of deportation and a life without citizenship have become the norm for most female defectors now living in China."

In a recent report by the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea an estimated 300,000 North Koreans currently live in China illegally. Eight out of 10 defectors are working-class women who have fled due to poverty and hunger.

Bang Mi Sun is one woman who has experienced first hand the "life of an animal" as a North Korean refugee in China.

"If I had a chance to meet with President Obama, I would first like to tell him how North Korean women are being sold like livestock in China and, second, to know that North Korean labor camps are hell on earth."

Her story is below: