Laura Ling broke her silence about her North Korea ordeal. Along with her sister Lisa Ling, she hit the talk show circuit to talk about her experience in North Korea along with promoting her new book about the whole situation. The sisters hit Orpah, Larry King, and Today Show. Read more about what happened here. Here’s more about the book:
On March 17, 2009, Laura Ling and her colleague Euna Lee were working on a documentary about North Korean defectors who were fleeing the desperate conditions in their homeland. While filming on the Chinese–North Korean border, they were chased down by North Korean soldiers who violently apprehended them. Laura and Euna were charged with trespassing and “hostile acts,” and imprisoned by Kim Jong Il’s notoriously secretive Communist state. Kept totally apart, they endured months of interrogations and eventually a trial before North Korea’s highest court. They were the first Americans ever to be sentenced to twelve years of hard labor in a prison camp in North Korea.
When news of the arrest reached Laura’s sister, journalist Lisa Ling, she immediately began a campaign to get her sister released, one that led her from the State Department to the higher echelons of the media world and eventually to the White House.
Somewhere Inside reveals for the first time Laura’s gripping account of what really happened on the river, her treatment at the hands of North Korean guards, and the deprivations and rounds of harrowing interrogations she endured. She speaks movingly about the emotional toll inflicted on her by her incarceration, including the measures she took to protect her sources and her fears that she might never see her family again.
Lisa writes about her unrelenting efforts to secure Laura and Euna’s release. Offering insights into the vast media campaign spearheaded on the women’s behalf, Lisa also takes us deep into the drama involving people at the highest levels of government, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, former Vice President Al Gore, Senator John Kerry, and Governor Bill Richardson—intense discussions that entailed strategically balancing the agendas and good intentions of the various players. She also describes her role in the back-and-forth between North Korea’s demands and the dramatic rescue by former President Bill Clinton.
Though they were thousands of miles apart while Laura was in captivity, the Ling sisters’ relationship became a way for the reclusive North Korean government to send messages to the United States government, which helped lead to Laura and Euna’s eventual release.
Told in the sisters’ alternating voices, Somewhere Inside is a timely, inspiring, and page-turning tale of survival set against the canvas of international politics that goes beyond the headlines to reveal the impact on lives engulfed by forces beyond their control. But it is also a window into the unique bond these two sisters have always shared, a bond that sustained them throughout the most horrifying ordeal of their lives.
Get Laura and Lisa Ling’s book “Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity in North Korea and the Other’s Fight to Bring Her Home”.
Surviving North Korea, Laura Ling spent 140 Days in Captivity. She talks about her stomach ulcer. How it delayed her entrace into the labor camps and her experience with North Korean medical procedures.
Laura and Lisa Ling will discuss Laura’s imprisonment in North Korea with CNN’s Larry King
Journalist Lisa Ling says she feared for her sister Laura’s life as she remained in a North Korean prison accused of being a spy.
Hey, Do you have the entire Oprah interview of Laura and her sister Lisa? If so, can you post it because I missed it and I’m really interested in this story. Thank you.
Dear Laura Ling,
WOW! Practicing the art of gratitude… There are times in life when we are called to our highest nature. Laura, you have given us all an unforgettable life lesson in your practicing the art of gratitude in the face of systemic abuse. North Korea’s government is revealed for what it is. In inspirational contrast, your response shines as one of those “best sermons the world has ever seen”. May our courage be multiplied by the abuser’s abuse.
President Obama’s “better angels” rode on the shoulders of President Clinton into the the nether world of North Korea. You Laura, stood firmly in the gap of grace. The world admires your innocent self-sacrifice.
John Walker
Santiago Chile