ABC News describes the North Korean prison camps that journalists Euna Lee and Carmichael native Laura Ling have been condemned to. This is really scary stuff that makes Guantanamo look like Monte Carlo. My heart goes out to the families and I hope that Hilary Clinton or Bill Richardson or Al Gore can bust some balls and get these ladies freed, foreign policy chess match be damned.
The Sac Rag 
I feel for the families, Euna Lee and Laura Ling. 12 years in any prison is not a good thing to have in your future. That being said didn’t they break the law of a foreign country? If I was in France and beat a guy up could I not be arrested for assault? What is the difference. I am not a lawyer but I cannot see a loophole here. You broke the law you serve the time. Also they knew there was a risk when they went there.
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It’s their “culture.” Ya’ll should be more respectful of other “cultures.” Because all “cultures” are equal, except America’s “culture,” which is supposed to accommodate all other “cultures.”
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Wow.
Man, I sure hope these guys never get their hands on nuclear weapons.
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Well- if they do, we should be respectful of that decision, because all people and cultures are entitled to nuclear power, just like the US is.
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Well, I think the punishment for murder in France would be like a spa vacation compared to the punishment for sitting on a photograph of the Dictator in DPRK. I don’t think we can take the legality of their incarceration at face value. Although it sounds like the various envoys we are putting out there are basically taking it at face value and asking for a “humanitarian outcome.”
Some experts are saying the ladies would probably be held at one of the “show prisons” and not at one of these work camps.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hM96sRn69bkN1XDLqb2_pkmFxqdgD98N9D9O0
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@Turty, and what do you think about all the political prisoners our allies have? Or those in our own prisons?
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I think that everyone calling North Korea’s acts horrible, awful, etc., is making a value judgment about the North’s culture. They WANT this kind of ordered society. Crime is low. Inflation is controlled. What more do you want?
Err- Moe? Don’t you mean the policital prisoners that the US holds? What about em? Are they getting 3 hots and a cot? Getting medical care? No forced labor? Religious tracts supplied for free … What do you want to know exactly?
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@Turty, several states do still have forced labor, actually, and the number of prisoners who have died due to heat, exhaustion, lack of medical care – in some cases food and water – is a lot higher than you’d think for a country like ours.
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Yeah- America’s prisons and justice system is EXACTLY like North Korea’s, except for minor cultural differences (rice rather than ham sandwiches, building apartments rather than license plates, etc.). California should totally look to North Korea for money-saving tips on prison management and prisoner health care. Except the crime rate in North Korea is a lot lower than California’s. Weird.
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No, I never said that. But your simplistic reduction of everything that is not American = bad and everything American = good is infantile. You’re much smarter than that, and it’s not a good way to dismiss people who disagree with you – especially when they agree with you about a lot more than they don’t.
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Went to Barret Junior High with Lisa Ling. Stuck up snotty bitch who did everything possible to make life hell for the few kids who went there that were poor, like myself. Doesn’t have anything to do with her sister, just wanted to put that out there….
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