Customer Reviews

Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home

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3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
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My take on this book is quite different from others. I have a mixed review of this book and the actions of the author, mainly negative ones.

I'm a South Korean-born American. And so I have a great deal of interest in anything that deals with North Korea. (NK) I followed this story closely when it unfolded. I also saw the Ling sisters give countless interviews about the events, during and after it occurred.

On the positive front: If you just look at this book on an emotional level as a tale of sisters bonding and rooting for Laura Ling to get out of the hellhole known as NK, you will love this book. It is well written and very detailed. Due to the frankness and the clear writing, you will feel yourself transported into the shoes of these sisters and feel as if you were going through these events yourself. Both sisters write well and as a result, there is a great amount of suspense and page-turning effect that makes you keep reading.
Both sisters are pretty honest. And so as a reader, you end up liking them and cheering for them. It is an emotional tale with a happy ending: when you either read about or see the video footage on the internet, seeing Laura and Euna getting off the plane and being reunited with their families will move you to tears. I mean if that doesn't get you misty eyed, there seriously is something wrong with your heart. I was so happy and joyed to see the women return and embrace their families. And the efforts of President Clinton, Vice-President Gore, President Obama, and everyone else should be commended for getting these two ladies home. They are daughters, wives, friends, loved ones, and in the case of Euna Lee, a mother. And so on a humanitarian heart level, this is a feel-good story and a survival tale.

On the negative front: Having said all this, it is important to look at these events from a world and moral perspective. In other words, use your mind, not just your heart when you read this book and assess the events. You cannot separate their experience and their actions. And so I encourage you to look at this book and the two journalists' actions on a global scale. When you do that, you will come away with a much less impressive view of these two sisters, particularly Laura Ling. And you will view the writing of this book on a much different level. Here are my observations.

1. Much of the tension in the narrative by Laura Ling is artificially created. She obviously wants sympathy from the readers. And to get it, she unnaturally tries to heighten her situation with drama and suspense. She does this with an amazing amount of detail in this book. Too amazing. The two sisters recall almost a day-by-day, sometimes an hour-by-hour account of what happened to them. They directly quote people on countless situations. This is just not believable. If you read Euna Lee's book, she rarely quotes but rather just summarizes what a person said. Plus in the front of her book, Euna Lee even says that the quoted dialogue is her best memory of what someone said and may not be accurate. Laura Ling does none of that in her book. I strongly doubt these were the actual words spoken by the various people. There is no way a person could remember that amount of details for five months short of recording constantly. In my experience if someone is being this exact about this much volume of detail, they are filling in the details and gaps of memory liberally, exaggerating the events and the atmosphere to suit their own agenda.

This kind of amplification of truth is even more apparent when describing the dialogue. Instead of writing this person "said" something, Laura Ling writes with exaggerated descriptions like, "I screamed breathlessly" or "he said gruffly." These are obvious and unnatural drama-creating devices. All of this is done to grab greater sympathy from the reader and paint themselves even more as a sympathetic victim. Many of these events of Laura are probably dramatized and not completely accurate. It made me look at her story with greater doubt.

2. The tone of both sisters has a quiet and underlying sense of arrogance about them. Lisa Ling talks many times about the amount of years she has in television and the number of contacts she has. Of course this may be factually true, but the manner in which she talks about herself and her stature put me off, as many other reviewers have commented on. Laura Ling is worse. She clearly sees herself as a survivor and victim of these events. But there is no humbleness nor any sense of responsibility of her own actions in this book. And when you see her in interviews on the internet about these events, her narcissism really comes through. This is not a grateful person at all. There is a lot of "but I want this..." type of attitude as a prisoner in NK. She is extremely preoccupied about telling what happened to herself and how hard it was on her. Yet she is oblivious to what other negative effects her actions have had on others.

I'm guessing she did some research on NK before going there for her assignment. And so she should know about the incredible food and medical shortage in that country. Most North Koreans who are not in prison do not receive the amount of food as well as medical care that she received. She took a dangerous assignment which means she should understand the amount of risk she was taking. And when the risk doesn't pan out, she should accept the logical consequences. Instead, she goes into this victimhood mode which was very unattractive. When you play with a rabid, foaming-at-the-mouth mad dog, you can and will get bitten. She acknowledges so little of her circumstance to her own actions. She blames the events virtually all on her guide who took them into NK. NK is a murderous, paranoid, child-like regime who are always looking for a reason to be offended. Why would you risk going across the river like that into NK, especially when she has all that video footage, contact information about people who work to help NK refugees?

There is also no sympathy by Laura Ling in looking beyond her own pain. I cannot imagine their level of shock when she was imprisoned. But what about realizing that she and Euna Lee are not the only ones imprisoned? There is an estimated 150,000-200,000 prisoners in North Korea, most if not all of them unjustly imprisoned.

[...]
She must know this. And she must know about the amount of physical labor, torture, malnutrition, starvation, beatings, unsanitary conditions, lack of medical care, brainwashing, and forced abortions that goes on regularly and systematically in NK prisons. Yet she received lavish meals compared to NK standards, a clean room, allowed to exercise, and received whatever medical treatment was available. I never read Laura Ling once reflect or sympathize about the other NK prisoners in worse situation than her.

The following article shows that Pastor Chun told them repeatedly not to stray into NK territory.
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And that the journalists should know about the danger of even being near the border in the various examples in this article.
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As this article discusses, they took an unnecessary risk. They may say that they were trying to shed light on the plight of NK refugees. That's a nice motive. But their actions were still reckless and not even necessary as this article shows.
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They could have competently reported on NK escapees without crossing the Tumin river. They had various footages from interviews with defectors, they had footages from the area, town, woods, and river that the refugees would go through. They did not need to cross the river and into NK territory. They could have shot the same footage standing from the China side without crossing the river.
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3. Laura Ling's actions also placed the refugees and the South Korean people who help them at risk. For those brave and blessed folks who want to escape NK and risk so much, they are now worse off because of Laura Ling's actions. Since the journalists were captured in an area where many people escape into a town in China, NK officials are now more aware of the refugee movement and have a greater insight in how to prevent refugees escaping. There is a silent war going on between NK officials and NK citizens who want to escape as well as those who risk so much to help them. Their actions made it harder for NK people to escape and to help those who want to escape.

4. Laura Ling gave too much details regarding her NK captors and guards. NK is a dictatorship built on fear and loyalty to the state/demi-god Kim Jong Il. Like the old Stalinist Soviet Union, kids are encouraged to spy on their parents and to be on the lookout for any disloyalty to the state. This means any signs of disloyalty, failure of job duties, or sympathy to prisoners can be grounds for you or your whole family to be imprisoned or killed without any legal process.
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Knowingly or not, Laura Ling recounts in great detail, the "kindness" many of the female guards and captors showed her. Many of the female guards asked and talked to Laura Ling about what its like in America, learned Ling's yoga moves, talked about Ling's family and husband, laughed and cried with Ling, showed sympathy, slept and goofed off rather than guard Ling, and even was sad when Ling was freed. This can and will get these female guards into trouble for dereliction of duty and being kind to an enemy criminal once the NK officials read this in Laura Ling's book.

Ling also writes about how one of her main captors, Mr. Baek, was the one who suggested that the American envoy should be President Carter rather than President Clinton. This communication error by Mr. Baek can also get him into trouble. In addition right after Ling was caught, many of the soldiers were actually kind to them by allowing Laura Ling and Euna Lee to stay in the same room for a night, which allowed them to destroy a lot of contact information about the refugee contacts and erase footages. Now those guards will be introuble for incompetence. And so by disclosing this information about how "kind" these people were, Laura Ling will be punishing those who were kind to her.

Laura Ling says how she has disguised the identities and names of many of these people, but the NK will obviously be able to figure out who she was writing about. Without any regard for the safety of these guards and captors, Ling just blasts away about the details of their actions. Why go into this amount of detail? Why not leave that stuff out? Why even write a book at all about these events when it will endanger these poor souls? Just give some interviews and that's it.

5. Their reckless actions of being captured also cost our country greatly. Some conservatives like John Bolton and Dick Morris have said that sending President Clinton there amounts to negotiating with terrorists. They are wrong. They are using the wrong analogy and they make a poor argument. I wish they would not have made those public remarks, as they sound cold-blooded and without compassion.

It's true that Clinton went to NK on behalf of our government. This disguise of the mission as "a private humanitarian mission" is simply not true, especially from all the behind-the-scenes work that went on from what Lisa Ling writes. Plus look at this following article with the timeline that shows Clinton brought a message from President Obama and they discussed a "wide range of issues.":
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What Obama did was not analogous to negotiating with terrorists because this is not a situation where NK kidnapped American citizens. Laura Ling and her team got into trouble by themselves, no matter how brief they were in NK.

But in order to get the two journalists out, I am sure it cost our country something. This is all speculation of course. But using common sense, I don't think a sociopathic, evil, ruthless dictator who sees himself as a kind of god like Kim Jong-Il would release these two American journalists for just some apology and a visit by his favorite president, Bill Clinton. There is no way that he would not exploit them for some kind of gain. I am sure President Obama paid some secret hefty price to release these two ladies. I don't know what that price could have been, but probably something along the lines of money (millions of dollars I am sure), medical or food aid, personal gifts of luxury for Kim Jong-Il, release of some NK prisoners, or a promise to overlook some military growth or missions by NK. Assuming the price was not something that placed innocent people in danger, I don't blame President Obama for having paid the price. It was the decent thing to do and I'm sure President Bush would have done the same. But the reckless actions of these three people cost the US a lot and made NK gain a lot in return. Any gain for NK is a loss for its imprisoned citizens and the good people of this world.
6. The fact that the Ling sisters are profitting off their recklessness is also something I don't like. Laura Ling places herself as a victim and a great survivor. But she placed herself in this siutation. Of course NK should not have arrested her, but NK is a psychotic and evil government; one of the worst in the world. But she put herself in that situation. If you take the risks, you should accept the consequences. I'm not saying we should have left the two journalists to rot and die in NK. But they bear some responsibility for getting themselves into that situation. Instead of doing that,
Laura Ling just focuses on the consequences of this decision on herself and her family. That's it. And she writes in a tearjerker manner in order to maximize the drama so that she can sell more books. Disgusting.
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Just look up "Laura Ling" on the internet and you'll see that she went on a media blitz series of interviews; Oprah, CBS News, Anderson Cooper and Larry King of CNN, NPR, Current TV, the Today Show on NBC, MSNBC, and ABC News among other internet news sources. Watch these interviews and you'll see her personality and attitude which matches the tone of the the book. All these interviews are done to "promote her book." That is code for "trying to sell as many copies as possible." A sales pitch tour to maximize profits.

Yes, Laura Ling claims a portion of the profits will go to some organization to help NK refugees. But make no doubt: Laura Ling will still make millions of dollars from the writing of this book, capitalizing off their reckless experience. Who knows what tiny little profit will go towards the organization.

These are my problems with the book as well as the bigger, more global perspective surrounding these events. If you want to just see the book at the emotional level and bury yourself under the sand, it's a free country. But my hope is that people look at events with their mind and not just one's hearts. When you do, you'll see a rather unimpressive, self-preoccupied, and ready-to-celebrate-herself person who has not held herself accountable for her own actions in creating her own hell. In Euna Lee's book, she at least does so very clearly. Until Laura Ling owns up to her actions and have some empathy for what it cost others and our own country, she will never be free of these events. For her own sanity's sake, I hope she does. I doubt it.

I bought this book early this morning planning to read it another day, but once I started I couldn't put it down. I wasn't very familiar with the events surrounding Lisa's sister's imprisonment until both she and colleague Euna Lee were pardoned. I practically held my breath from the moment of their capture until their release while reading. Laura's narrative is beautifully detailed and makes you feel like you're experiencing it all with her. Somewhere Inside pulls the covers on just how secretive and oppressive North Korea is under the regime of Kim Jong Il. The widespread starvation, inhumanity, and cult-like worship of Jong Il's dictatorship. Charged with "hostile acts" (giving the US a no holds barred view of what's really going on), Laura and Euna Lee's 12 year sentence of hard labor will make your heart drop. The narrative alternates between the sisters (Laura and Lisa), but isn't jarring. Trust me when I tell you you'll go through so many emotions while reading. Great job, ladies!

"Somewhere Inside" is a book telling the story in two parts of what really happened on the riverbanks between China and North Korea on March 17, 2009 when Laura Ling and Euna Lee were captured by DPRK border guards while they were fleeing a brief incursion into North Korean territory. After finishing the book, reading between the lines of their confessions, and analyzing their post-release pronouncements, what appears to be the most accurate explanation of how they got themselves into such a predicament is that the Chinese guides they hired to lead them into an area where they could more easily find and interview defectors, were either DPKR agents, intelligence stringers, or knew how to make a quick Yuan by "setting up" and then "selling out" a foreign press crew engaged in a dubious, not very smart, borderline legal and risky mission.

Investigating defectors from the DPKR (and specifically those being trapped in the sex trade), was indeed a very high-risk operation. So the reader is left to assume that the team of US reporters captured there were either too naïve to realize the kind of danger they were putting themselves into, or too trusting of their guides whom they did not know? In either case, they should have been well aware that crossing the river onto DPRK soil would put them and their mission in maximum danger - and as it turns out would be very costly in political capital to the USG.

Yet, cross it they did, giving the DPKR a clear-cut case of illegal entry into that godforsaken pariah country. Why is it that every several months there is another case just like this one of Americans being captured on one of our enemy's borders? Once caught in the "DPKR Guide/Intelligence trap," the team complicated their own situation immensely by lying about their mission, requiring DPKR authorities to "smoke" the truth out of them through harsh interrogations.

All things considered - the complete idiocy of being lured onto DPKR territory, and the backdrop of sensitive international events -- the paranoid nation comes out smelling like a compassionate rose. Except for the beating that Laura took during the capture, in prison they were treated more like "pampered celebrities" than like what we had been taught to expect of Kim Jung Il's gulags: They were given three square meals, mild interrogations, English-speaking guards, and other amenities ordinary North Korean citizens would never dream to see even without being in jail? I doubt very seriously that had they been imprisoned in most U.S. jails they would have been treated nearly as well as they were in a North Korean jail?

Plus, once they were forced to come clean and confess, the "diplomatic game was on." It was a quid pro quo all the way: their freedom from a 12-year jail sentence in exchange for one day in the sun of international respectability for DPKR's beloved leader Kim Jung Il and his despised regime.

For this amateurish folly, I believe that was just too high a price for the US to pay. It is a political trade-off that should never have happened -- provided a bit of elementary caution by our fellow international "cub" reporters had been taken. In fact, given the backdrop of international saber-rattling by the DPKR going on at the time (the firing off of two rounds of IRBMs and a nuclear test), that they were released at all strikes me as no less than a miracle. The way they carried out their mission was dumb, dumb, dumb, period.

Considering how much unnecessary political currency was burned up over this bit of shortsightedness by a team of neophyte reporters, one would think that in the future as a minimum, similar missions ought to be "cleared" by the State Department before hand. Or at the very least, anyone traveling in sensitive terrain such as was the case here, should be "briefed" by the State Department, and warned of the kinds of trouble they can get themselves and our country into. And finally, if this indeed was some kind of ultra dumb US intelligence operation, the overseers back in Langley ought to be fired forthwith.

Although these women were made into heroes as a result of this episode, what they did was just plain foolhardy and amateurish. We must stop glorifying this kind of politically expensive amateurishness. Two Stars

Chilling details of Laura Ling's time in North Korea. I enjoy reading and watching anything that gives me a look into this isolated world. Laura gets a chance, through telling her own story, to shed light on the desperate situation of the people of North Korea. The intention of her trip to the China-North Korea border region was to give a face and voice to the people fleeing their home-land everyday, and the horrors they often face afterwards.

*****
I bought this riveting personal memoir last night and couldn't put it down. It is the story of two incredible sisters, their family bond, and one sister's (Laura's) imprisonment in the Hermit Kingdom of North Korea while her older sister (Lisa) fights to get her free. The story is told in alternating voices, with one short chapter being told by Laura and the next chapter what was happening at the same time for Lisa. The story is told from the women's viewpoints; so not just the the stunning political and legal details of this story are shared, not just the vivid descriptions of the imprisonment, but the feelings and the thoughts of the two women are shared as well. Although this is non-fiction, it reads like a novel and is hard to put down.

In addition, the humanitarian story that is the backdrop for this personal account--the situation of the North Koreans and the refugees who leave--is even more important and unforgettable. Laura and Lisa are journalists who believe that this more important story is vital for us to be concerned about and to act upon. At the time that Laura was being held (last year), North Korea was involved in a global nuclear showdown. North Korea considers itself still at war with both the United States and South Korea. North Korea's role in the world is unique and this book helps the reader to be introduced to their fascinating and repressive culture.

The book details Laura's imprisonment, her "confession" of trying to overthrow the North Korean government, her treatment in North Korea, her trial, how she survived, her sentence, her imminent removal to a hard labor camp, and her rescue by President Clinton. Many, many other people helped with her release as well. The book includes descriptions of much that was experienced by Laura's colleague, Euna, but they were separated for much of the imprisonment, so the telling is strictly from Laura's perspective. The book tells a story that I think would appeal to any reader; this is an important book for everyone to read.

Some things I will not soon forget: the journalists eating their notes so as not to implicate their victimized sources, recipients of an American medical mission thanking a Kim Jong Il portrait for their cures, North Koreans accusing Laura and Lisa Ling of trying to overthrow their government, Laura hitting herself in the bathroom to punish herself, Lisa wanting to involve Michael Jackson (and him wanting to be involved) right before he died, why the North Korean government has so much contempt for Christians, and so much more.

Please read this important story, learn to appreciate even more about our freedom here, and learn how others are suffering in another part of the world.

Highly recommended for all readers.
*****

The story of Laura Ling's captivity in North Korea is an interesting read but not for the reasons you might think. Was North Korea wrong in holding Laura and Euna? Sure. I don't think it's any secret what kind of government is ruling North Korea. But what is unexpected is that we learn all the mistakes and just plain irresponsible behavior that lead to their capture. They were where they shouldn't have been and they knew it. The sisters seem a little arrogant in their thinking that any means to securing their release was justified. Yes, they merely stepped onto N.Korean soil but they knew the risks.
At times I had sympathy for their plight but mostly I was just aggravated that in this world there are people like the goverment of N. Korea who, like a petulant child, won't let anyone touch their toys. And then there are the Lings who seem to think the rules don't apply because they're journalists and must get the story.
Sometimes you have to use your head and not give into your ambition.

Very careless in getting captured near the border. They Jeopardized many lives with their stupidity and don't seem to have a grasp on the reality of what they did. Their experiences in captivity do not compare to the experiences of other Americans who have made the same unfortunate mistake of crossing into North Korea (e.g. Robert Park). Instead of purchasing this piece of nonsense I would suggest reading "Under the Loving Care of the Fatherly Leader: North Korea and the Kim Dynasty", By Bradley K. Martin.

While I do not agree with some of the tactics that foreign correspondents use to make sure that they get stories, I do believe that we should thank them for the risk that they are willing to take so that light is shed on matters that the rest of the world may be ignorant about.

I think that this is one of the points that this memoir is attempting to make. Another important topic is that diplomatic issues between the United States and other countries are far more complicated than a lot of Americans realize. I believe a lot of Americans live under a very protective shield and may not be aware of situations outside of the US; this book is important because it allowed me to see just how different some Asian cultures view the US. This insight is important if Americans wish to move towards a more global view of diplomatic relations.

With that said, this book is a very detailed account of the problems that were encountered when Laura Ling and Euna Lee were held in North Korea after entering the country illegally. I must admit that throughout the book, there is an understanding by the authors that Laura and Euna did trespass in North Korea and broke the law. It is the severity of the punishment and the use of the crime as a political agenda that induced outrage among the authors. However, as I read the book, I never got the impression that the authors put down North Korea or disrespected the country.

The book is written in the first person and alternates between Laura and Lisa Ling's accounts of their childhood and the events surrounding Laura's detention/imprisonment in North Korea. I felt a kinship with the ladies and a unique insight into the sisterly bond. I also felt that if I were going through some type of hardship in my life, I would want one of these ladies by my side. It is a very well-written book by journalists who know how to deliver details that are pertinent, useful, and heart-wrenching.

While there may be criticism of the help that was received to assist Laura and Euna, it doesn't mean that this story should not be told. I was very impressed with this book and would highly recommend.

For those with who had lived under the Communist regime will not be shocked. I recommend this book to everyone. You will appreciate freedom much more and feel gratitude to be living in the US.

I didn't expect this book to grab me like it did. The Ling Sisters reawakened an interest in the mysterious land that is North Korea. Although I knew what the ending would be, I reveled in the suspense of Laura's story. Nine months after reading it, I bought two copies for birthday gifts.