140 Days In Captivity

Two Journalists Tell Harrowing Tale Of Their Arrest And Detention By North Korea

We arrived at the frozen river separating China and North Korea at 5 o'clock on the morning of March 17. The air was crisp and still, and there was no one in sight. As the sun appeared, our guide stepped onto the ice. We followed him.

We had traveled to the area to document a grim story of human trafficking for Current TV. During the previous week, we had interviewed North Korean defectors, women who had fled poverty and repression only to find themselves in a bleak limbo in China. Some had found work in the online sex industry; others were forced into arranged marriages. Now our guide, a Korean Chinese man who often worked for foreign journalists, had brought us to the Tumen river to document how these smuggling operations work.

There were no signs marking the international border, no fences, no barbed wire. Our guide began making low hooting sounds, which we assumed was his way of making contact with North Korean border guards he knew. The previous night, he had called his associates in North Korea trying to arrange an interview for us. He was unsuccessful, but he could, he assured us, show us the no-man's land along the river where smugglers pay off guards to move human traffic.

When we set out, we had no intention of leaving China, but when our guide beckoned for us to follow, we did, eventually arriving at the far riverbank. He pointed out a small village in the distance where he told us that North Koreans waited in safe-houses to be smuggled into China.

Feeling nervous, we quickly turned back. Midway across the ice, we heard yelling. Looking back, we saw two armed North Korean soldiers with rifles running toward us. Instinctively, we ran.

We were firmly back inside China when the soldiers apprehended us. They violently dragged us back across the ice to North Korea and marched us to a nearby army base. Over the next 140 days, we were isolated from one another, repeatedly interrogated and eventually put on trial and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

There are things that are still too painful to share, but we do want to explain what took us to northeastern China and the circumstances of our arrest.

We believe journalists have a responsibility to shine light in dark places. That was our goal on this story. We felt it was important to raise awareness about the harsh reality facing North Korean defectors who live in terror of being sent back to their homeland.