Monday, June 08, 2009

North Korea Sentences 2 American Journalists to 12 Years of Hard Labor - NYTimes.com

Simply ridiculous and outrageous. North Korea seems to be thriving on antagonizing the U.S. and the rest of the world. Whether rattling their nuclear saber, or imprisoning journalists without making any evidence public, the government of North Korea sure likes to stubbornly assert itself, and show how little it cares for the outside world's opinion.

In getting better behavior from North Korea, our hopes lie with cooperation from China, but that means the Obama adminisstration will have to pursue less confrontation with China's communist party, and tone down criticism of China's human rights record. I have a lot of respect for politicians that have to make these difficult choices and compromises between their ideals and the practical policies they must follow to get things done.

I couldn't do it. I would rather be an active citizen, work through human rights and other organizations to further what I see as best for the U.S. and the world, than I would to work as a politician. It is too painful to have to compromise on some things - like the lives and liberties of other people around the world.

North Korea Sentences 2 American Journalists to 12 Years of Hard Labor - NYTimes.com

More on human rights in North Korea from Amnesty International.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I think that this is horrible for the two girls. All they were doing was reporting assignment from Current TV that had to do with women and children that were trying to find food in china. And when the Koreans found out they capture them and hold them captive? I honestly think that the koreans are stubborn for this action among these two girls because their report was not affiliated with anything that could have offended the north korean government. North korea is just trying to find an excuse to get out of the nuclear testings that happened last month. Pathetic.


Junior Jack
Per.5

Anonymous said...

it seems that the only reason the north koreans did this was to threaten the US and that they wanted to get back at us for testing them. Also, it seems that they are taking this advantage to get back at us and if they were to go bomb us or whatever, they would just say that we didn't trust them and that we were siding with the journalist, making them feel like their suspicious or whatever. Cause i know for a fact that if i was being search and was a suspicion to other people, it would make me feel bad and want to get back at them. But the north korean has no reason to hold capture of these women's, even if they are suspicious. They are suppose to have evidence before sending people to jail or whatever they decide to do. The government is violating the rule of law since they didn't present any evidence and they decide to just put the women's in jai for 12 years. That is all wrong.

Nga N.
06/09/09
Current Event #11- Last one of the year!

Anonymous said...

By this happening the North Korean government is violating the rule of law since they didn't find identify any evidence before putting the women to jail for 12 years. All they were doing was reporting assignment from Current TV that had to do with women and children that were trying to find food in china. How does that offend the north Korean government?

Mr. Joyner

Anonymous said...

I think that this is terrible because these two women havent had a fair trial, there is no evidence provided. Now they have to serve twelve years of hard labor for what could be completly baseless alegations. I think that the United States should do something about this.

-Megan Amacker

Anonymous said...

I think that this is pretty ridiculous, i dont know why North Korea has to be so stubborn, these girls need to at leasssttt have a fair trial and be able to show what they were doing. North Korea sounds like it has alot of ***holes. this is seriously wrong.

Dylan Evans
Period 5

Anonymous said...

Josh Potter
This is outregeous and ridiculous. The Korean government is very immature because they are trying to show that they are superior to America, when clearly they aren't. North Korea is starting to lose allies and make enemies because of their unreasonable actions.
(Current event # 5 make up)

Anonymous said...

I think that this just goes to show that other countries can be as unfair as they want to be to American citizens and get away with it. At worst the girls deserve a fair trial but they don't deserve 12 years in jail. I feel like they are trying to show that they have some sort of power over us but really they are just taking advantage of their own system and punishing innocent people. If they keep doing stuff like this to us and other countries they will be left with no allies.

Keegan Malmanger

EXTRA CREDIT

starbaby2992 said...

this is outrages all these two girls were doing was an article about women and children trying to find food in china. i think that this shows that korea is trying to show u;p america and try to become more superior to us since we scorned them for that missle training. Its really horrible that those two girls have to be stuck there now for 12 years because they were trying to do an article on china not cool . plus china should be dealing with this not korea.

Anonymous said...

i think that this is terrible because it doesn't see fair the girls were just trying to get learn and get some information. i think north korea did this to try to send a message to the US. i do not think they have the right to capture these women. it violates the rule of law since they did not have evidence. this is terrible 12 years is a very long time and the women do not deserve it.
Spencer Truong
Period 5
EXTRA CREDIT