This story was originally published on L.A. Youth.

By Ha Young Kwen

Earlier this year, I saw a documentary about North Korea at my church. One scene showed North Korean boys scrounging for food in the mud with no shoes on. The movie explained that there’s a famine in North Korea. But what makes it worse is that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-il, gives his supporters and soldiers food while leaving millions hungry.

I was born in South Korea, which borders North Korea. North Koreans have the same hopes, dreams and fears as we do, but don’t have the same opportunities. I think of them as my brothers and sisters. It hurts to think that my people are dying because they don’t have enough food to eat.

I learned that North Korea is a dictatorship and the government holds absolute control over people’s lives. North Koreans don’t have freedom of speech, press or religion. People are sent to prison camps for the smallest reasons, like listening to a foreign radio station. No one can leave or enter the country.

However, those who are desperate for food and freedom risk their lives to leave. To escape North Korea, the only option is to swim across one of its rivers into China. North Korean soldiers patrol the rivers and if the soldiers see anyone trying to escape, they shoot them. In one scene from the documentary, a riverbank was lined with dead bodies, which reminded me of pictures I’ve seen in books about the Holocaust. Once in China, North Korean refugees have to hide from Chinese officials. If they’re caught, China sends them back to North Korea, where they could be tortured, sent to a prison camp or executed.

The film was about refugees hiding in China. They were trying to find safety, but most of them got sent back.

When journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were captured by North Korean forces on the border with China in March  we had questions. What were they doing there? Why were they taken? Why was their employer, the viewer participation cable news pioneer Current TV, staying silent about the case? Even to the point of censoring viewer created content on the subject?

Last night Ling and Lee issued a written statement about their imprisonment and the events leading up to it, with a focus on the story they were there to pursue: the plight of North Korean defectors in China.

In their statement published on Current, the pair paint a dramatic picture of their capture:

Feeling nervous about where we were, we quickly turned back toward China. Midway across the ice, we heard yelling. We looked back and saw two North Korean soldiers with rifles running toward us. Instinctively, we ran.

We were firmly back inside China when the soldiers apprehended us. Producer Mitch Koss and our guide were both able to outrun the border guards. We were not. We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on Chinese soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers. They violently dragged us back across the ice to North Korea and marched us to a nearby army base, where we were detained. Over the next 140 days, we were moved to Pyongyang, isolated from one another, repeatedly interrogated and eventually put on trial and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor.

The answer to the most baffling of the questions raised at the time-- why was Current remaining silent-- comes in at an unexpected angle, and sheds light on the character of Ling and Lee:

According to time .com on March 29, 2009 two journalists Laura ling and Euna lee were doing a report when they were arrested and convicted of illegally entering North Korea. The two journalists wore sentenced to 12 years in prison after being charged with illegally entering a Korean military base. After 140 days in prison ex-president Clinton went to North Korea on Tuesday unannounced and CNS News reports that North Korea’s government specially requested that bill Clinton come and have a meeting with North Korean leader Kim jog. Bill Clinton told jog the journalists didn’t know they were crossing the border and it was an accident. Read more...

UPDATE II (Original Post Follows Updates)

Journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling returned to American soil today, touching down in Los Angeles where they were reunited with their families. In a press conference held at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank an emotional Ling read from a statement thanking former President Clinton and a host of others for securing her and Lee's release.

 See Ling read her statement to the press.

Supporters of jailed journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee will gather tonight on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall at 6:30PM for a vigil and group photo.

The event's organizers report that mail has been getting through to the pair, whom North Korea recently sentenced to 12 years of hard labor. Those in attendance will be asked to write personal messages that will be sent to the two women along with the photo.

The planned vigil comes on the heels of Ling's sister, television personality Lisa Ling, reporting that her sister telephoned her on Tuesday.

This week we've been following the sentencing of Current TV reporters Euna Lee and Laura Ling by North Korea to 12 years of hard labor with intense interest.

As journalists, this story strikes close to home. On top of that, there's the curious silence of Current TV- whose only official reaction, so far, to both the capture and sentencing of their reporters has been "No Comment". On Tuesday we spoke with journalist Josh Wolf- who holds the record, at 226 days,  for the longest prison stay by a reporter in the United States for protecting source materials- about his own investigation into why Current has been staying mum.

Josh's willingness to serve time, and Lee and Ling's very presence on North Korea's border to tell the story of human trafficking, speaks to the nature of reporters. Call it daring or just plain crazy: putting yourself at risk to tell a story isn't exactly "normal". So we went to visit Josh in San Francisco to talk to him about why reporters put themselves in dangerous situations.

Current TV journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor after being charged with crossing North Korea’s border illegally. The question people are wondering is what Current TV is doing to help free their reporters?

Finding an answer is not easy. Current TV is not willing to talk about this case. In a recent phone convesation with Current TV's press contact, I was quickly (and repeatedly) informed,“No comment on anything related to North Korea.”