Part 12 (1/2)

”Just try a little something,” she persisted.

”Do you know what happened? Do you know what sentence I was given?” I asked.

She placed the tray down and sat on the seat beside me. ”No, I don't know,” she said curiously.

”Twelve years.”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. ”Twelve years?” she said softly.

”Yes, and they said, 'no forgiveness and no appeal.' I can't survive twelve years in prison. I need to see my family.”

She was speechless. I could tell she was genuinely shocked by the news and saddened for me.

”I thought you would be forgiven,” she said compa.s.sionately. ”I thought you would get to go home.”

I sensed that she was starting to feel uncomfortable sitting beside me, consoling me. It wasn't her place. After all, she was supposed to be guarding me. But I could tell she felt disappointed. I think Min-Jin really believed her government would act compa.s.sionately toward me. I could see she felt awkward just leaving me there alone.

”Thanks for listening to me. I really appreciate it. I'll be okay,” I told her.

After sitting with me for a few more minutes, she got up and went back into the guards' area, where she began whispering to Kyung-Hee about my sentencing. I could hear Kyung-Hee's surprised reaction, followed by a somber silence that washed over the room.

Later that day, Mr. Yee came to take me for a walk outside. As he waited outside while I gathered my coat, Min-Jin called out to me.

”Laura,” she said softly, ”have hope.”

I was incredibly touched that these words were coming from the woman who was supposed to keep me prisoner.

Outside, as we began walking along one side of the compound, Mr. Yee asked me about the proceedings.

”It was terrible,” I said. ”Twelve years.”

”Did that surprise you?” he replied. ”I told you that even your own media has been reporting that you would get a very long sentence.”

”I suppose I knew it might happen, but I was secretly hoping for forgiveness.”

He chuckled softly. ”And how did you find your defense attorney?”

”What defense attorney!” I said cynically. ”He might as well have been working for the prosecutor! But it's as I expected. I know he was just doing his job.”

”That's right, he was. We don't have attorneys like you do in the United States, where they get paid a lot of money. This man did his best, and he got your sentence reduced to twelve years from fifteen. I saw him afterward, and he said he was sorry he couldn't do more.”

I felt bad about insulting the attorney who I knew was powerless in a system that was using Euna and me as p.a.w.ns for larger political purposes.

I asked Mr. Yee about the conditions at the camp. ”You will be fine,” he responded. ”You are a journalist, after all. Now you will get to see what a real prison looks like in North Korea.” I had become used to his snide remarks.

”Is the camp in Pyongyang or close to Pyongyang? I really hope we're not moved too far away from the capital,” I said.

”I'm not sure exactly where you are being sent, but I think you are going to the prison that's about an hour's drive away.”

”Do you know when this will happen?”

”That I don't know. There are still some procedural things that need to be done.”

Mr. Yee then questioned why I hadn't been eating.

”I can't eat. I'm too upset,” I explained.

”You must eat something.”

”How can I eat after a verdict like that? The judge said, 'no forgiveness and no appeal.' What does that mean for us?”

He shrugged off my question.

”In Roxana's case in Iran, there was an appeal,” I continued. ”That's how she was able to return home. Does 'no forgiveness and no appeal' really mean there is no hope left?”

After taking several steps along the compound wall in silence, Mr. Yee finally said something that brought me back to life. ”Law does not determine things. Man does,” he said, looking me in the eyes. ”Do you understand?”

I did. Suddenly I began to see things through a different lens. Even though Euna and I had been subjected to a trial and given a sentence that was most certainly preordained, the ultimate power lay in the hands of the regime. I wondered if the ”man” Mr. Yee was talking about was Kim Jong Il or someone else who was jockeying for power. I wanted to figure out what needed to happen for the person who was calling the shots to overrule the law. Our fate was still murky, but I was relieved to know that, as Min-Jin had said, there might still be room for hope.

LISA.

EVERY DAY SEEMED to present one surreal thing after another. I went to bed every night hoping that the next morning would bring positive developments in my sister's case, but each morning I woke up fearing that something terrible might have happened overnight. June 12 presented a doozy. to present one surreal thing after another. I went to bed every night hoping that the next morning would bring positive developments in my sister's case, but each morning I woke up fearing that something terrible might have happened overnight. June 12 presented a doozy.

Sending a clear and decisive message, all fifteen members of the United Nations Security Council voted unusually but unanimously to impose the severest sanctions yet on North Korea. Susan Rice, America's amba.s.sador to the UN, called the sanctions ”unprecedented,” and said the United States was very pleased with the vote. The resolution strengthened an arms embargo and called on the international community to search North Korean s.h.i.+ps for weapons and materials that could be used to boost its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Not surprisingly, Pyongyang responded by threatening to declare war on any country that dared to stop its s.h.i.+ps under these new sanctions.

Days later, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates stated during a press conference that North Korea's threats were being taken so seriously that U.S. defense forces had been ordered to prepare for a possible missile launch toward Hawaii.

Right after Laura and Euna were captured, if someone had told me that U.S.North Korean relations would get this bad so quickly, I would have said it wasn't possible. This seemed like a cruel game, and all I could think was that Laura was one of the pieces. But in reality, it was anything but a game. We were quite literally in the midst of a global nuclear showdown, and every day seemed to bring worse news. Tensions were growing on all sides. I decided then that I needed to find other avenues to get Laura out, even if it meant trying to infiltrate North Korea.

Around this time, I had a conversation with a friend who told me that someone she knew was trying to get in touch with me about my sister's situation. All she would say about the man was that he was part of an organization affiliated with the U.S. government that performed highly cla.s.sified special missions.

I got the phone number of the man I'll refer to as Brad and called him. Brad claimed that he had been a part of JSOC, the Joint Special Operations Command. JSOC consists of some of the most elite covert and clandestine operatives from multiple agencies and branches of the military in the United States. Brad told me that for years he had been working to infiltrate terrorist organizations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and South America. He used the phrase ”human intelligence” a number of times. He thought he could help me. He said, ”The phone is a dangerous device to those in my line of work. We live and work underground.”

We didn't discuss particulars because of security concerns. But he did let me know that sometime in the course of six weeks, his team, which consisted of other ex-JSOC members, would be able to ”get eyes” on my sister. In other words, his team would determine exactly where Laura was being held. He would put this information together and present it to American intelligence agencies and military organizations. They would then try to determine what course of covert action was required to get Laura and Euna out.

But there was no guarantee. It would cost five hundred to fifteen hundred dollars per day, depending on the expenses incurred. ”There is huge risk to this,” Brad said repeatedly.

When I asked how the operation would be conducted, Brad told me there was an ”extensive underground cellular ring” in South Korea that pushes ”throwaway” phones into the North. The phones are used to communicate between people separated by the demarcation line. He said his team had already made contact with some in this underground network who had been operating in it for years. They were ready to take action and find out where Laura and Euna were being kept. They just needed the ”go-ahead.” I figured that meant having a financial transaction take place.

That's all he would tell me by phone. He warned me that failure to protect his ident.i.ty would lead to major problems for him and provoke alarm within what he called ”the system.” He said the greatest risk to him was that he would be ”blackballed” in the network in which he operated. I swore I would never mention his name to anyone, ever.

I told Brad I wasn't sure the risk to my sister's safety was worth it. What if Brad's network got compromised? Could his efforts possibly jeopardize Laura's situation and make matters worse? I wanted to give diplomacy a little more time, even though it hadn't done much good in the past few months. It seemed as if every time we thought we had an opening, the door got slammed in our faces. So I wasn't about to rule out the Brad option, or any others for that matter.

LAURA.

WITHIN A FEW DAYS after the trial, I began to feel an intense, burning pain in my stomach area. I had also been vomiting uncontrollably whenever I ate something. I feared my ulcer was flaring up and asked Mr. Yee if I could see a doctor. after the trial, I began to feel an intense, burning pain in my stomach area. I had also been vomiting uncontrollably whenever I ate something. I feared my ulcer was flaring up and asked Mr. Yee if I could see a doctor.

”You will be going to a hospital for a full medical checkup,” he replied. ”It's part of the process before going to prison, to see if you are fit to serve in the labor camp.”