Brokedown journalism

Some of you may remember a film with Claire Danes and Kate Beckinsale from the late 90's, called Brokedown Palace. They play two high school graduates who vacation in Thailand and are arrested for drug smuggling, after meeting a guy who either sneaks heroin into their bags, or convinces one of them to try and take it with them - you never find out what exactly happened. But they are quickly tried and imprisoned in Thailand under deplorable conditions, sleeping in the dirt with cockroaches, given little sustenance, and suffering at the whims of the guards and other inmates.

It's a fictional movie, received mostly "meh" reviews, but it struck a chord in me when I saw it 10 years ago. I could imagine the fear and hopelessness of being arrested, tried, and imprisoned in a foreign country for a crime I didn't commit. Having my comfortable Western lifestyle snatched away, no way to return to my family or friends, under the jurisdiction of a legal system that affords detainees almost none of the rights to a fair trial and representation that we take for granted.

The arrest and subsequent sentencing of Laura Ling and Euna Lee in North Korea reminded me of the movie. Only the horrors of the judicial system and prison those two fictional characters faced, seem like a trip to Disneyland compared to what these very real American women are going through right now.

North Korean labor camps have an estimated 20-25% death rate. Former detainees who have escaped from N. Korea tell stories that I have a difficult time wrapping my mind around. Even the most mild political statements are enough to incarcerate someone - and several generations of their family along with them, including young children, who are not exempt from the 15-16 hour days of hard physical labor. Starvation is common, only the most meager rations are given to keep the prisoners alive. Women are routinely raped, and then given forced abortions - by having a large syringe of salt water injected into their womb - as late as 8 months into their pregnancy. Biological and chemical weapons experiments are carried out on prisoners. Eyeballs are removed. Beatings occur with such ferocity that splintered bones are exposed, and salt is then poured into the wounds. A google search for "North Korean labor camps" or "North Korean gulags" will tell you more than you ever wanted to know. The only difference I can discern between the N Korean gulags and the Nazi concentration camps, is that sometimes prisoners are released at the end of their sentence, if they survive that long.

This is what the two American journalists face for the next 12 years, and what hundreds of thousands of North Korean citizens go through every day, for "crimes" such as singing a South Korean pop song. Women no different than me. It is difficult for me to imagine such conditions are real, and occuring right this very moment across the globe. My mind wants to turn it into fiction, make it another movie, and stop thinking about it. I never did until the arrest of these two women, to be honest. I knew North Korea has labor camps, but I never bothered to learn the details about them, or contemplated the horrors or injustices of what their prisoners face. Nor have I seen, in all the news broadcasts and articles, hardly ANY reporting on the torture and experimentation that takes place in these camps. They say starvation and labor, yes, harsh conditions, yes - but nothing of the personal accounts of torture, biological and chemical experiments, rape, forced abortions, imprisonment of generations of families for one individual's offense, young children laboring alongside adults. Very rarely do these articles contain any of the horrifying examples or details of what these prisoners face. I had to do my own research, look for information on my own.

That angers me. It is hard to hear, hard to comprehend, I know. It is graphic and uncomfortable, but should not be glossed over. We may not be able to immediately do anything about it, certainly not as individuals, and recent events show that North Korea is bound and determined to do exactly what it wants, regardless of international pressure and sanctions from the world's leading countries, but that doesn't justify turning a blind eye. Political relations with China and Russia, North Korea's closest "allies" get in the way of taking a harder line. I understand the delicate balance of politics and power among our nations, especially with China emerging as such an economic force. In fact, China refuses to recognize those who have escaped into their countries as refugees, and routinely returns them to North Korea, where they face certain torture if not execution in these camps. Perhaps this is why the details of torture and brutality of the gulags are usually absent from our media reports on the arrested American journalists? I don't know. I don't have an answer as to what should be done, how it should be handled, how we balance politics with doing what is right, because every action has a consequence. If I had the answers I'd be working on Capitol Hill. I do know, however, that the answer is not to turn a blind eye.

Because of the international attention these two women's arrest has garnered, and because their sentence is likely another move in the political chess game Kim-Jong Il seems to be playing right now, many articles I've read state that the women are likely to receive better care than most, that their release will be negotiated for. I don't know what "better care" means. They won't be tortured, just worked and starved? I pray that is the case, I pray we get them out of there and safely home, very very soon. My heart breaks for those women. But my heart breaks as well for the North Korean men, women, and children who suffer in these camps, with no media appeal, no hope for intervention, no chance for liberation. Their names unknown to us, their sufferings unreported. They will not be negotiated for. They will not be saved.

Shame on all of us for accepting that.