What do you think the chances are of the two women journalists jailed in North Korean prison camps getting set free?

I think their chances are pretty good, and I certainly hope they do. Laura Ling is great, I remember her from channel one from long, long ago.

@jeffgoldblumsprivatefacilities
Wasn’t Lisa Ling on Channel One? Or were they both on it? As an aside, I can’t believe someone else knows what Channel One is. You’re my new hero.

To answer the question, though, I think they stand a fairly good chance of being returned. I think they’re being used as a bargaining chip. It might not be soon, but I have a feeling they won’t be seeing through their entire sentence.

I don’t know, but I sure hope they do.

@Les They were both on it. Glad I’m not the only one who remembers the classics.

i think if and whenever they come back they’ll need therapy.

They will probably have to do 6 months or a year hard labor then they will be released early after the hoopla dies down.

If there wasn’t the international tension over North Korea’s nuclear program, it would be easier to negotiate. At the moment, I’d expect them to be there for months. Korea has the power here and they don’t seem to be in any big hurry now that they have someone the US wants.

Kim Jung il is using this situation to “legitimize” himself, I think. No one’s going to give him more respect. The world will still think he’s a crazy, cruel drunk with an f’ed up hair-do and too many weapons.

That said, I hope Gore can charm him enough to save those women. If only all the prisoners had Gore-like advocates. :/

I suspect it depends on what North Korea wants in return and whether we want to grant it to them. After all, they kept those various Japanese kidnap victims for twenty-five years.

The only reason North Korea dragged them over the border in the first place was so they could “arrest” them on trumped up charges and then use them for political gain. If the US appears to drag their feet, or doesn’t jump high enough, they are doomed.

There is absolutely no way they could have crossed the border on their own. They had to have been kidnapped.

My late father used to grumble, when we children asked him for money, “That’s right, shake the money tree.” Well, that’s what the North Koreans are doing. @YARNLADY , you are quite right.

Apparently the whole thing was staged in order for N.Korea to use them as baragaining chips. They don’t really plan to keep them there, and I think they’re probably treating them well. So nothing to worry about.

i think the bad part about those camps is not nec the facility, lack of medical care, etc, and the work, which is bad in itself, but the beatings, torture, etc.