Both families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee have appealed to the public to help urge both the US government and North Korea's to resolve the humanitarian issue. --PHOTO: AP
THE two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labour by the North Korean government on Monday, work for California-based Current TV, the media venture of former US Vice-President Al Gore.
While the incident has sparked much public outcry worldwide and speculation that the two women are being used by North Korea as political pawns in negotiations with the US over sanctions to be imposed for the underground testing of Pyongyang's nuclear power last month, little has been revealed about the journalists' background.
According to Toronto's TheStar.com, Current TV has said that Ms Ling, 32, and Ms Lee, 36, were on an assignment to examine human trafficking across the China-North Korea border on March 17 when they allegedly stepped over the invisible border line and were arrested by North Korean officials.
A cameraman and a driver who were with the pair at the time of capture managed to escape arrest.
On her profile on Current TV's website, Ms Ling said she enjoys working on hard news stories to 'provide knowledge and context about what's happening in the world as opposed to just covering random news events', as well as generating 'dialogue' about important world issues.
Ms Ling's older sister, Lisa, is herself a well-known American journalist best known for co-hosting ABC's talk show The View with Barbara Walters until 2002. She later moved on to hosting the National Geographic Explorer and reporting for Channel One News as well as CNN.
'We don't know the details of what happened on March 17, but if at any point the girls went into North Korea, then we apologise on their behalf,' Lisa said on CNN's Larry King Live on Monday.
Ms Ling's family has also said that she suffers from an unspecified 'serious medical condition'. Other reports have said that Ms Ling suffers from recurring ulcer.
Ms Lee used the pseudonym Saldate72 in her profile listed on CurrentTV's website but said little of anything else.
Her resume on www.act-edit.com states that she has been an editor for CurrentTV since 2005 and also produced a number of short feature films. She has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in film and broadcasting.
Ms Lee's husband, Michael Saldate, said on Larry King Live that the trip to North Korea was Ms Lee's first overseas reporting assignment.
According to CNN.com, he revealed that their four-year-old daughter, Hannah, has been 'displaying signs of anguish over the absence of her mother' for the last three months.
Both families have appealed to the public to help urge both the US government and North Korea's to resolve the humanitarian issue.
'Help us stand up for truth and two girls who just wanted to tell the world a story,' said Lisa.
