Christian Web News - According to a South Korean missionary, North Korean officials are holding two American journalists and their guide after arresting them near the North Korean-Chinese border because they ignored orders to stop shooting video.
On Thursday, the Rev. Chun Ki-won of the Seoul-based Doorihana Mission told The Associated Press by telephone that he was informed the three were arrested two days earlier near the border.
He identified the journalists as Laura Ling and Euna Kim, female reporters for the online media outlet Current TV.
Chun says he met the two in Seoul to give them advice for their reporting trip to the border. The last time he spoke to them was Tuesday morning as they were heading northwest toward the Chinese border city of Dandong.
The journalists were detained after ignoring soldiers' orders to stop filming, the reports said. The Yonhap news agency said they were arrested in North Korea but YTN television said the guards crossed into Chinese territory to arrest them.
Both women were working for online media, the reports said, with YTN identifying one of the women as a Korean American from California with the surname Park.
No information was available from the U.S. Embassy in Seoul on Thursday about the reported arrests, spokesman Aaron Tarver said. State Department officials in Washington were unavailable for comment overnight.
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young told reporters he had no comment.
The Munwha Ilbo newspaper said earlier on Thursday that a female reporter was detained Tuesday in the border region along the Yalu River dividing China and North Korea. The report cited unnamed diplomatic sources in Seoul. She was identified by the paper as a reporter named "Ming" working for a U.S. television station.
Both the Tumen and Yalu rivers are frequent crossing points for both trade and the growing number of North Koreans seeking to escape through the porous border. The famine in North Korea and an economic boom in China have proved an attractive combination, with tens of thousands of North Koreans crossing into China in search of food, medicines, jobs or escape.
The Chinese government complains about the incidents but most attacks are dealt with quietly if at all. The Chinese that live on the border say North Korean spies have long acted with impunity when policing or trying to retrieve their own people.
Foreign journalists standing on the Chinese side of the border are often ridiculed by North Korean border guards, some brandishing rifles just steps away.
Also at risk have been South Korean missionaries assisting North Korean refugees. The Rev. Kim Dong-shik was kidnapped in 2000 from the Chinese border city of Yanbian and taken to North Korea.
North Korea's premier Kim Yong Il has been holding discussions with senior Chinese government officials in Beijing this week, and was meeting Premier Wen Jiabao later Thursday.
Christian Web News - Galatians 3:13-14. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree''), that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
Christian Web News - Often when we talk about sin, we use lots of examples such as abortion, homosexuality, murder, substance abuse - I could go on and on. However, I want to direct this little three letter word to the Christian who is serving God and can tell a sinner all about his or her sin. We use to call it “pointing the finger” at someone who does so many bad things.
