Somewhere Inside

by Laura Ling

  Even though a visit to try to negotiate the release of my sister and Euna had to be a private one, it nevertheless had to be approved by the commander in chief, especially because North Korea is a country with which the United States has no diplomatic relationship. We didn’t for a second expect the U.S. government to pay for a trip to retrieve the girls. We just needed President Obama to say that it was okay.

  Maya graciously agreed to send my note but suggested that I make it brief because her brother “has a lot going on,” she said. No kidding, I thought, feeling guilty for adding more to the president’s already crowded agenda.

  Dear Mr. President,

  Please know that I would never ask Maya to pass along information to you unless it was imperative and urgent. To be frank: you are the only person on the planet who can help us. I know that a number of high level envoys have been presented to the North Korean government to secure the release of my sister and her colleague. As I am sure you’re aware, they have all been rejected.

  However, in the last week, since Secretary Clinton called for amnesty, one person’s name has emerged—President Bill Clinton. First, from my sister during a recent phone call that was monitored and likely contrived, and second, from State Department sources.

  These sources have apparently reiterated twice their desire to have President Clinton and it seems apparent that they are ready to deal now. It is THE ONLY time the North Koreans have directly made a request. All other envoys had been presented to them. Furthermore, President Clinton told Vice President Gore that he would be more than willing to go.

  You are probably aware that a visit by Senator Kerry has been accepted by Pyongyang. The North Korean Government offered a July 24th date to Senator Kerry but he can’t leave before the Senate vote on your healthcare bill. Senator Kerry proposed an August 11 arrival date and was accepted. The problem is that the girls are not guaranteed to be released under his agenda.

  Additionally, our fear is that the longer this goes on and given the deteriorating health of Kim Jong Il, the greater the risk that an all out power struggle could ensue and the country could descend into chaos. There appears to be an opportunity now to avoid these dire scenarios. Kerry’s office told me that if the White House can get someone on the ground sooner and get assurances of a release, that “they should by all means do it immediately.”

  The last four months have been devastating, as I am sure you can appreciate. I know President Clinton is a complicated request, largely in part due to the person to whom he is married. But the signs that the NKs are ready to deal are more apparent than ever. Mr. President, our families beg you to approve sending President Clinton as an envoy to secure the release of my sister Laura and Euna Lee. This is a strictly American issue that desperately needs American/Barack Obama style diplomacy. It is a desperate situation but it seems there is an obvious way out. With terror in her voice, my sister said “If something is not done very soon—this week—we will be sent to a labor camp.” Please help her avoid this, there’s no one else who can.

  My deepest thanks, Lisa Ling

  More than a week went by after I sent the letter to Maya to send to President Obama. The ball, it seemed, was squarely in the court of the U.S. government. Every couple of days I would get an e-mail from Al Gore asking, “Any news?”

  And I would respond, “No, not yet.”

  Conversations were being held at such a high level inside the White House that even Gore was not privy to them. Then, on July 30, Kurt called me to corral our families together for a conference call.

  “It’s good news,” Kurt reported.

  “We’ve gotten the go-ahead,” he said in his official State Department voice. This must have meant that both Secretary Clinton and President Obama’s national security team had given their blessing.

  “The plan is for liftoff on August 4, sometime in the middle of the night,” Kurt said. “If all goes well, the women will be back in the U.S. by August 5.”

  Every one of us on the conference call—Iain, Mom, Dad, Michael, and I—let out a collective and deafening “Yeah!!!” We had experienced so many highs and lows throughout the nearly four-and-a-half-month ordeal. This was the affirming tone we had been waiting for since the end of March. The possibility that I could have my sister back from captivity in less than a week was overwhelming; it truly was the best feeling of my life.

  Kurt told us we had to stay quiet about the mission.

  “We don’t want to do anything that could jeopardize this,” he urged. “The press must not know, or we could end up at square one again.”

  Kurt was right. If word got out, the blogosphere, as well as news and political pundits, would surely begin hypothesizing about a range of things. We didn’t want any kind of speculation about a “deal” or anything to be said that wasn’t true. Soon enough, President Clinton’s private mission into ultrasecretive North Korea was sure to become one of the biggest stories around the world, and we couldn’t do anything that would endanger it from going forward.

  LAURA

  MY FEVER BROKE AFTER the third day, and I was finally allowed out of bed. Ointment that the nurse had dropped into my eyes had restored my vision somewhat. I remembered the letters, and I had trouble imagining a visit from President Clinton given the recent exchange between Secretary Clinton and the North Koreans. I decided it was time to find out what rights I had, if any, as a foreign prisoner in North Korea. Up to this point, the North Koreans had seemed determined to show the world that they had a just legal system, and I wanted to put their image of themselves to a test. First I would demand that my family be allowed visitation rights, something I knew they had been trying to obtain through North Korea’s Permanent Mission to the UN ever since my detainment.

  I asked Paris to tell the authorities I wanted to see Mr. Yee immediately. Two days later, I was surprised when he and Mr. Baek walked into the room.

  “I heard you’ve been ill,” Mr. Yee said. “Are you feeling better now?”

  I told him I was getting better, and I was very grateful for the doctor’s care.

  “I was told you wanted to see me,” he said.

  “Yes, well, I thought you would be coming to visit me once a week, but then I never saw you again. I’m a little mad at you,” I said in a friendly tone.

  He blushed. “I have a job. My bosses would be very upset if I spent all my time visiting Miss Ling. Anyway, I’m here now. What is it that you want?”

  Before I asked him about my rights and whether my family could visit, I began with my standard question: “Have you heard any news?”

  “It seems that something may be happening,” he replied casually.

  “‘Something’ meaning something good or bad?” I asked anxiously.

  “You will find out soon enough,” he said and got up to leave.

  “But you just got here!” I cried. “I have other things I want to ask you.”

  “I will be back tomorrow,” he said. “In fact, I think I will see you every day from now on. Get some rest.”

  LISA

  THE NEXT FEW DAYS were challenging because friends were calling to check in on us as they had been doing for months. We had no choice but to tell them we were still feeling hopeful but hadn’t heard any news.

  Another conference call was set up for Saturday so our families could speak with Bill Clinton before the Tuesday, August 4, departure. This time Al Gore joined in.

  Both my parents, Iain, and I were at my mom’s house on different phones when the call linking us to Clinton and Gore came through.

  “I am honored to have been asked by you all and Al to help get Laura and Euna back,” Bill Clinton said in his characteristic voice.

  “Thank you, Mr. President,” Gore remarked. “We appreciate that you have agreed to take the time to do this.”

  And in a moment of levity, Clinton jokingly retorted, “You know, Al, this means you have to go to Port-au-Prince with me.”

  President Clinton was referring to his recent appoi
ntment as special envoy to Haiti for the United Nations. Haiti is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, and its capital city, Port-au-Prince, has been plagued by instability and violence in recent years. This conversation took place more than five months before the devastating earthquake that paralyzed that country.

  “Yes, Mr. President…,” the former vice president responded in over-the-top effusiveness. As if to say, I know you’re doing me a big favor.

  Hearing the former president and vice president on the phone together was exhilarating. They spoke in a formal tone—because others were listening in—but were respectfully familiar at the same time.

  I took a deep breath and began to address President Clinton to thank him on behalf of our families. Then all of a sudden, in mid-sentence, my call dropped. “Oh my god!” I exclaimed, verbally assailing my cell-phone carrier.

  Fortunately, I was immediately called back to rejoin the discussion. Iain had quickly jumped in where I left off, and expressed our profound gratitude to the former president and his wife, the secretary of state. Clinton then reiterated how important it was to keep his participation utterly quiet.

  “I have every confidence that we’ll get them home,” he said, “but I cannot stress this enough: no one can know about this private mission.”

  After four and a half of the longest months of our lives, in a matter of days the forty-second president of the United States would be on his way to the most secretive nation on earth with the hope that my sister and Euna would be on his plane when he returned.

  The days and hours that preceded takeoff were filled with logistics coordination. When a former president is involved, there’s no such thing as simply landing at Los Angeles International Airport and going through immigration and customs. A good friend of Bill Clinton’s, Andrew Liveris of Dow Chemical, volunteered its plane to transport Clinton and his staff from New York to Burbank and then back to New York. Another close friend of the former president’s, Steve Bing from Los Angeles, donated the use of his private plane and staff for the trip to Pyongyang and back, as well as his hangar in Burbank, California.

  The plan was for the plane carrying former President Clinton and his team to leave Burbank at approximately 2:00 A.M. Pacific standard time on August 3, with stops in Alaska and Japan for refueling.

  Linda McFadyen phoned and told us to pack a little bag for Laura that would be waiting for her on the plane. I rushed out to the Gap to buy my sister a brand-new, clean outfit that she could change into: a soft brown V-neck sweater and a comfortable pair of cargo pants. She had probably been wearing the same clothes every day for months, and I wanted her to have something nice. My mom filled the bag with toiletries and Laura’s favorite snacks, and we all included notes for her to read on the plane. I made sure she had makeup and tweezers in the bag so she could be prepared in case there were cameras when they arrived back home. I knew my sister would want to look presentable if that happened. I figured she probably wouldn’t be looking her best after spending nearly five months in captivity.

  I returned to my mom’s house to show my family what I had bought for Laura. I pulled the sweater and cute socks out of the bag, and turned to Iain to get his approval. He was almost giddy, like a little boy. Typically he’s pretty self-controlled and unemotional, but I had seen a different side of Iain throughout this harrowing ordeal. His love for my sister was unlike anything I had ever witnessed. I had never seen him cry before this, and the pain he exhibited from not being with her was excruciating. It was awesome to see him exuberant, and it warmed my heart deeply. After we finished putting Laura’s bag together, Iain pulled me aside to ask me a question.

  “Do you think she’ll be the same?”

  “I don’t know,” I responded. “All we can do is love her and give her time to decompress.”

  “Make sure to tell your mother that,” Iain quipped.

  I laughed. “Most definitely.”

  Two days before takeoff, Kurt called to say that the White House wanted just the family members to be present at the hangar when the plane arrived in Burbank; no friends, just family. I conferred with Iain and my parents, and we felt strongly that Vice President Gore should be there. Without alerting Kurt or the White House, I phoned Gore and asked if he would like to be with us on the ground to greet the girls, and if so, if he would say a few words. He had just as much of a reason to be there as we did. He had spent the entire summer working on getting the girls freed. I didn’t want him to be left out of the reunion.

  I called Kurt and told him I had asked Al Gore to be present when the plane arrived and to make some brief remarks. There was a pause on the other end of the phone line.

  Before he could say anything, I said, “It just wouldn’t be right if Vice President Gore weren’t there, Kurt.” And then I added, “If the White House has a problem with it, they will have to call him themselves. I’m sorry.”

  They never called.

  We were told that President Clinton wanted to be on the ground in North Korea for as little time as possible. But the North Koreans were insistent that he stay for a minimum of twenty hours. Unfortunately for our side, all the leverage was theirs. Clinton’s counselor and closest adviser is Doug Band. He became my main point of contact for everything that was happening on the plane.

  As soon as they were “wheels up” from Burbank, Doug fired off an e-mail to let me know the plane was in the air. We were so excited that our friend Morgan took a photo of my mom, Iain, and me holding up an old GQ magazine with President Clinton on the cover. I e-mailed that to Doug to show the president. Steve Bing’s private 737 was fully loaded with the highest technical equipment, so Doug and I were able to communicate the entire time the plane was in the air. Every few hours I got an e-mail from Doug: “…halfway to Elmendorf [Air Force Base, in Alaska]…15 minutes to Japan…can’t sleep, too anxious…”

  Every time the red light on my BlackBerry flashed, we all rushed to check the latest update. Doug let me know when they landed in Tokyo to refuel, and as soon as the plane lifted off again, the news broke. And it broke big. A private plane with a former U.S. president on board doesn’t touch down in another country without anyone noticing. The South Korean press somehow caught wind of the plane and its well-known cargo and filed an immediate report. The story was out and the headline read: “President Bill Clinton Is on a Secret Mission to North Korea to Negotiate the Release of the Two American Journalists.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  the rescue

  LAURA

  THE NEXT MORNING MR. YEE returned and began questioning me as he had during the investigation, asking me if I remembered the crimes I had committed. He wanted me to tell him again what my motivations were for working on the documentary. I told him what he wanted to hear—that I was trying to bring down the North Korean government.

  “So, you understand, then, why you were given a twelve-year sentence, according to our law?”

  “Yes,” I replied. I wondered why he was bringing all of this up again, but then it became clear what he was trying to achieve.

  “If you are allowed to go home, what will you tell people about your crime?” he asked. “There are people who will ask you if you were tortured or if we made you lie. What will you tell them?”

  My heart was racing. Was he saying I might be going home? Three days ago, I was hooked up to an IV drip, feverish and incoherent. My spirits were at the lowest they’d ever been. Now, could this misery finally be ending?

  “I will tell people honestly what happened,” I said. “People have shown me kindness here, and I will never forget that.”

  He then proceeded to tell me what I’d desperately wanted to hear ever since my apprehension.

  “In about an hour, an important envoy from the United States will be landing in Pyongyang. If things go well with his visit, you may get to go home with him. If things do not go well, then you will not go with him.”

  He also told me that Secretary of State Clinton’s apology and call for amne
sty had been received positively by the North Korean government. Thankfully, he didn’t mention anything about “unruly children” or “schoolgirls.”

  “This envoy that is arriving soon will most likely want to see you and Euna,” he said. “So you should prepare yourself to see him shortly.”

  “That’s unbelievable!” I shouted, grinning from cheek to cheek. “Who is it? Is it President Clinton?”

  “I cannot tell you who it is,” he replied.

  “But please,” I begged. “What does it matter if I know now. He’s already on his way.”

  “All I can say is that it’s one of the people you asked for.”

  He then told me what he thought I should say to this envoy. “You should first tell him that you are very sorry for your crimes and that it’s important that he apologize on behalf of the U.S. government for your actions and promise it will never happen again. You should then tell him that you really want to go back with him when he returns.”

  “That will be easy,” I said.

  I couldn’t believe that everything was happening so fast. I was shocked. I wondered if that was why the doctor had cared for me so intently, so I would be healthy enough for the visit from this envoy, whoever he was.