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The World Is Bigger Now: An American Journalist's Release from Captivity in North Korea . . . A Remarkable Story of Faith, Family, and Forgiveness

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On Friday I finished the books written by the American journalists who were imprisoned in North Korea for 4½ months last year. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, as well as a male colleague and a local guide, were exploring the Tumen River which separates China from North Korea. They were filming the area at night for a documentary they were making on defectors, and since the Tumen freezes in the winter it is used as an escape route for North Koreans. The local guide took them all to the North Korean side and although they weren't on foreign soil for any more than a few minutes, the women journalists were captured, and both assert that they were apprehended on the Chinese side of the Tumen. Their male colleague escaped, and he was their lifeline who reported the news of their capture to their families.

Both books tell the same story, yet it is interesting to find out what one woman knew while in captivity and what the other didn't. I read Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home by Laura Ling and Lisa Ling first, then The World is Bigger Now: An American Journalist's Release from Captivity in North Korea...A Remarkable Story of Faith, Family, and Forgiveness by Euna Lee with Lisa Dickey.

The narrative of Somewhere Inside is shared by Laura and her sister Lisa. It is not always in a clear, chronological timeline, but that did not detract from the continuity of the story. For example, the sisters would jump around, going from the North Korean story to recounting their experiences being the only Chinese family in their neighbourhood growing up.

Lisa Ling may be familiar as a correspondent on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" and as a former cohost on "The View". After Laura and Euna's colleague could notify the two families that the women had been apprehended by North Korean authorities, Lisa used her extensive media contacts to work for a release. I was impressed by all the people she knew or had access to, and it was only a phone call or two to get through to former Vice President Al Gore or Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Lisa however tended to go overboard in her lengthy self-publicity, listing her past credentials and work assignments with whoever she contacted for help.

The families could, eventually, communicate with Laura and Euna through mailed correspondence and while Lisa kept Laura informed about the efforts she was making to get them released, Euna was kept in the dark and did not know what was going to happen to her. Thus Euna's story, The World is Bigger Now, reads more like a horror story, and there were many times as I was reading her book when I was afraid to turn the page. Euna, unlike Laura, spoke Korean, so she could understand everything her guards were saying and could overhear everything they didn't want her to. This is a case where knowing too much worked to her detriment. Euna's guards even persecuted her for betraying her Fatherland, since she had been born in Korea (albeit the South).

Euna conveys her fear better than Laura, even though Euna does say that "I was so worried about [Laura]--worried about her head wound, the painful stomach ulcer I knew she had, and the fear she must be feeling in a place where she couldn't even understand the language. As difficult as all this was for me, at least I spoke Korean. I wanted to offer Laura what little comfort I could, especially when I heard her crying in her cell. Fear of something you know can be scary, but fear of the unknown is terrifying.". Euna was genuinely afraid of being sent to prison for life, or of being executed, and the tales of her fear could make your blood freeze. Even though the families of Laura and Euna kept in touch with each other daily, Laura seems to have more of an idea of what is going on in the efforts to get them released. Lisa's contacts gave Laura hope while Euna seems to sit depressed in prison not knowing what is going to happen. Her descent into a near nervous breakdown is chilling, especially when she is faced with a life-or-death option with a handful of sleeping pills she had been hoarding.

The constant grilling of both women by their interrogators broke them down. Day after day of brutal interrogation, wherein the inquisitors would manipulate testimony and play one woman against the other, eventually led to Laura confessing to crimes she did not commit: "I sat in silence for a few moments, contemplating what I was about to say. Finally, I forced the words out, ever so slowly. I admitted to having hostile intentions and to trying to topple the North Korean regime. I didn't know if I was making the dumbest mistake of my life. I had confessed to the gravest possible crime and handed him everything he needed to send me to the firing squad. Had I just walked into a trap from which I might never escape?". Laura explained later: "By telling them what they wanted to hear, I was hoping they might show leniency.".

When Euna is given the opportunity to make a phone call home, she writes "Then it hit me--did I even know anyone else's number? Whenever I called people at home in L.A., I relied on the contact list on my cell phone. I never bothered to memorize their numbers. It was even harder to remember as almost two months had passed since I'd called anyone at all. I started writing down random phone numbers on a piece of paper. After trying more than twenty times, I finally managed to remember the phone number for my younger sister, Jina, who lives in San Francisco. I also wrote [husband] Michael's cell phone number down several times to make sure I had it right. This was my one chance to communicate with my family, and I had to make absolutely sure I got through to someone.". Let this be a warning to all of you who have cell phones. What if you need to call someone and you don't have your cell with you? Would you know anyone's phone number?

During a second phone call Euna was allowed to make to her sister, Jina, she writes: "Jina was absolutely quiet on the other end of the line. She didn't say the words she had said so often in her letters and in the other phone call we'd had. She always told me, "I believe I will see you soon," and her optimism always made me feel better. But this one time, she didn't say it. All I could think was, Jina knows something I don't--something bad--but she doesn't want to tell me. i'm not going home, I thought. I'm really going to the labor camp."

Euna and Laura were separated after they were imprisoned and do not see each other again until their trial, 2½ months later. Euna writes: "But when I finally saw her, I had an unexpected reaction. I felt completely removed from her emotionally. All those days of interrogation--of hearing that Laura was supposedly cooperating more, or telling her interrogators I was responsible for everything, or revealing things we had agreed to keep secret--had hardened my heart toward her. She may not actually have done any of those things, but Officer Lee had done such a good job of pitting us against each other, I didn't even want to look at her when she walked in.". Euna's mind had been poisoned by her captors. As she tells the reader how she despised Laura at that point, she goes to great lengths to apologize to her for harbouring these thoughts. This degree of openness is absent from Laura's book, and Euna paints a stripped-down emotional nightmare that exposes not only the horror of the North Korean penal system, but also the horror of a woman she became because of it.

Although they were each sentenced to twelve years in a labour camp, neither spent time there. This was likely the government's intention all along, as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea had to "save face" and sentence the journalists at trial, then use diplomacy to free them. Laura was withheld in "medical detainment" after the sentencing and even when she felt better, doctors always ruled her health as unsuitable for labour camps. Laura learned to believe that this was North Korea's way of stalling her internment, in order to stimulate talks with American authorities. Euna was miraculously found to be too weak and sickly to be sent to camp, and was kept in prison until she "got better".

Since Euna could speak Korean she developed a sense of trust with her captors, Officer Lee especially, who broke protocol in order to talk with her. After the sentencing Lee assured her that she and Laura would not be interned in a labour camp since the government reserved such camps only for North Korean citizens. It was only after the sentencing that Euna had some optimism that she would eventually be released, but when, she had no idea. It might appear as though Euna developed a case of Stockholm syndrome towards all her captors and guards, since she confesses that after the sentencing, when she was removed from her prison cell to another place of detainment, she genuinely missed Officer Lee. She spoke fondly of him throughout the second half of her book, even though he terrorized her with his day-long interrogations in which he showed no mercy. She also befriended some of the female guards, who lived with her in her places of confinement, leaving her no privacy whatsoever. Laura, on the other hand, had no such fond feelings for her guards or interrogator. Laura befriended her interpreter as he was the only person she could talk to, and she never wanted him to leave her side, even when she was transferred. Euna, however, took whatever chance she could to talk to her female guards. While some were hardline in demeanor and refused to talk to her, some befriended her as well, sneaking her forbidden candy.

Euna's story is subtitled "A remarkable story of faith, family, and forgiveness", and it is her Christianity and relationship with God that help her through this 4½ month-long ordeal. What might be interpreted at first as Stockholm syndrome might instead be a sense of Christian compassion, of loving thine enemy. During her captivity, Euna forbade her family and friends from sending her a Bible, as such a book would be considered forbidden and the consequences of receiving such a gift would be dire. Euna expresses her terror, as well as comfort, in finding Bible verses in the correspondence her family and friends send to her. She realizes, however, that all correspondence coming from home must go through some kind of government censor, and the authorities certainly must have read all of her letters before forwarding them on to her. So she became less fearful of reading comforting Bible verses in her mail, although a Bible or other religious works would certainly have been banned. As Laura and Euna are packing their belongings when they are eventually freed, the guards bring in boxes of gifts, food, clothes and books that their families had sent, but which the authorities withheld. The women go through all such items and are surprised what their families sent yet which they could not receive: there were no Bibles, but popular American novels were banned, as well as all foodstuffs.

Somewhere Inside and The World is Bigger Now are sometimes two of the same, yet sometimes two very different stories. Read both in order to get the full story of what went on last summer in the North Korean prison system

When I first heard about this book, I was very interested in reading it. I remember when this story came out in the news last year and I kept track of all the details of the story. I hadn't seen any of Euna Lee or Laura Ling's work prior to their capture, but I had grown up watching Laura's sister Lisa Ling on Channel One and then followed her journalism career. Plus, being an Asian American female made me really interested in their story.

Honestly, I had no idea that Lee was a Christian before reading this book. As far as I remember, it was never brought up in any of the news stories, I don't remember hearing it in any interviews or reading about it in news stories. In fact, I really don't remember much coverage on Lee and more of the focus being on Ling. Other than the shots of Lee embracing her daughter, I really don't recall much focus on her. I seem to remember more about Ling because of her relationship with her sister. Anyways, I was delighted to read her story and even more so to see how much her faith was relied on during this horrible ordeal.

Since this is a memoir and not an autobiography, the focus of the book deals with Lee's captivity in North Korea. Background information is given about her life before, such as her coming to the US, her marriage, being a mother and her career but it is not the main focal point of the story. Instead she uses all these experiences to show how it helped her get through her ordeal. I really felt as if I was along with Lee during her captivity. Everything was so vividly described with so much emotion in the words. The most emotional parts would be when Lee was able to speak with her husband and especially the first time he missed her call. How devastating that must have been on both sides.

After reading the book, it made me really think about the people in North Korea. There's nothing I can do for them, other than pray, but it just saddens me to think how many people are "trapped" there and pretty much nothing can be done. It makes me really glad that I was born where I was and how grateful I am to have lived the life I have. There were so many things we take for granted and Lee shows this as she revels in the wonder of peanut butter or reading a classic novel. A hot bath became a luxury and even clean clothes was such a relief. Reading this book was an eye opener for me and made me appreciate what I have.

Overall I really enjoyed this book. The story gave a fascinating insight into what happened during Lee's captivity as well as also a good look into Asian culture. I don't know if I could have handled the situation as well as Lee did. It was a true test of her faith and that is what got her through the situation. I haven't read Ling's account of the situation but after reading Lee's side, I'd like to read hers as well. As soon as I finished this book, I went on YouTube to see the video of Lee and Ling coming off the plane and being reunited with their families. I always felt emotional when seeing Lee hug her daughter but after reading this book I teared up. This book is a fascinating read and one that I think everyone should read.

This is a very simple journal/memoir about two female American journalists who were captured by the North Koreans and held hostage for 5 months back in 2009. The book is a very personal account of the ordeal from the point of view of Euna Lee, one of the two journalists. It was a quite a good read, and very moving at times - especially in recounting her relationship with her husband and young daughter. An unexpected spiritual theme runs through the book, including the journalist's decision to admit her belief in Christianity, even though she knew it was a dangerous thing to say. Fascinating little piece of modern history as well as insights into suffering and hope.

I recall following this story on the news about 2 US citizens who were captured by North Korean border guards about a one and a half years ago.At the time it was reported they were abducted by the guard on the Chinese side of the border and I recall seeing footage of the aircraft returning from Pyongyang with former President Clinton steeping from the aircraft with the two newly released prisoners.
Well, this book fills in everything that happened and also provides some background on the characters and how they suffered emotionally during they time in North Korea. There are many interesting and even mysterious characters that appear and also shows the sad plight of the desperate North Koreans who manage to escape to China but are not really "free"

The book provides some very interesting insight into the Chinese/North Korean border and also portrays the North Koreans in way not normally seen.

A great book that answers most of the questions of why two journalists from California would be caught on a frozen river on between two far-off countries.I thoroughly enjoyed reading this and think most people will too!

Euna Lee chronicles the events that resulted in her captivity in North Korea, her experience as a captive and her ultimate release. While there are good and important parts in this book, I felt too much space was devoted to never sent letters home, text relating to missing/loving family, prayers and guilt feelings. These could might comprise one third of the book.

Lee, appropriately begins with her life. She tells of her family and how she came to be a Current TV journalist. The next part on the North Korean refugees took me right in. Lee and her partner Laura Ling uncovered important information. I am sure there was more to say about this and would have liked to read it.

It is hard to tell if they were brave or foolhardy to walk out on the semi-frozen Tumen River, but I believe Lee when she says it was her career orientation. She wanted to make the best documentary, and the river crossing footage was important in telling the story. The footsteps of the guide (disguised by wearing her shoes) was a creative way to illustrate the peril of crossing the river and would have been a stirring segment.

The best segments of Lee's captivity are the reports of her living conditions and the types of interrogation and intimidation she suffered. Lee emphasizes her reactions to it all, her crying, illnesses, fear, etc. There is a lot of text (mentioned earlier) devoted to unsent and received letters and her prayers. While she honestly tells of her emotions regarding Laura Ling, she only lightly shows how this relationship was manipulated. For instance, the book could use a report of her and Ling comparing notes to see how much NK received from each of them, and how much had to come from outside sources.

The description of the people and place was rudimentary. Did she see any other prisoners? While it might be dangerous to Sunshine to divulge a relationship (which is hinted at with the bouquet and the uncertain good bye protocol) something of her condition, her age, her role/status in the prison would be of interest. In the end, she mentions a TV near her cell. If it was there the whole time, what did the guards watch (Lee does speak Korean)? What was the daily conversation of the guards? It seemed that they were living there too (almost like the prisoners) but this is not clear. Officer Lee seems to be good at his job as an interrogator. Lee calls him a "good person". With the advantage of sharing his native tongue, I would expect more nuance in his description, if only some commentary on how he learned English and keeps his skills honed. Did she learn anything about his "career" and how he got into it?

As a journalist, I was surprised that Lee seemed to have no interest in the negotiations regarding her release (before or after the fact). She says nothing of the role of the Swedish ambassador. Why did Officer Lee tell her to beg him to help? How did it happen that Bill Clinton was selected to escort her home? What did the US give up to get her out? Even if this is classified, there should be some acknowledgment of the effort. Similarly, there is no follow up on whatever consequences might have fallen those who's names and images wound up in the hands of the North Koreans.

This book will be of interest to those interested in North Korea. It would also be good for introducing young people into the methods and risks of good journalism.

I expected this to be an eye-opening, compelling story, but it was instead a slow and tiring read for me with only a few interesting glimpses into North Korean life. Author Euna Lee is not a writer, and it shows in the lack of vivid reporting and generally wooden prose that reminded me at times of a schoolgirl's report that dutifully chronicles what happened to her but seldom springs to life on the page. There's a lot of indiscriminate detail about the author's background and what happened but few scenes or people you can really imagine, identify with, or come to know. In only a few cases where Lee spoke of her childhood and her grandmother's house (and also of Bill Clinton) did the story seem more real. I suspect if Lee had shot a film of this experience instead of writing a book it would have been far more moving, artful, and involving. I don't think words are her medium or that verbal self-disclosure, observation, and reflection are her bent.

This book is absolutely amazing. I wish there were superlatives out there that could describe the depths to which Ms. Lee's account of her harrowing experience moved me, but I can't seem to find them at the moment. Safe as I am in my own little world, it is so easy to forget what people who do not have access to the gifts that I have been blessed with go through. Ms. Lee's story brings some of that to light, humanizing a people that we know little about beyond the demonization that they receive due to their leader.

The main thread that I connected to in this narrative was her ever present faith - even when she shared her struggles with God. This made me assess where I am with God and how my faith is so small in the light of what she endured and came through all the closer to Him. While I hope that God does not test me to this extent, knowing her experience helps me to find the faith inside. In all, this was a story that makes me want to find some way to help the North Korean people and find a way to make my own world bigger by looking within to see others with kindness and compassion.

American journalist Euna Lee writes about her experience "accidentally" crossing into North Korea from China in 2009, her capture and release. What I found interesting about her account is that it reflects a "regular" person experiencing a trauma that she could not be prepared for. When military personal are captured, one expects that they have received some training in how to respond and we tend to expect them to be a hero. But Euna Lee and her colleague Laura Ling were thrust into a dicey situation with not a lot of cross cultural experience and risked their safety depending on the expertise of others. Lee's account is honest and transparent, even when her anxiety and fear are less than heroic. But then whose would be different? Officer Lee headed up her interrogation and eventually broke her into giving information about their contacts. Yet he did become a support of sorts as he provided glimpses of humanity when he enabled her to speak on the phone to her husband and gave her advice about handling her trial. In the midst of trauma grace was still present. Separated from her colleague, Lee's Christian faith sustained her in the fear of facing 14 years in a labor camp. The beginning of the book was a slow start, but eventually held my attention. The last chapter includes how her personal perspective on life changed resulting from her experience.

A couple of years ago, I was captivated by the news that two journalists from Current TV were imprisoned in North Korea. As the days and then weeks and then months went on, it seemed like the journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, would never leave North Korea. Now two years later, Euna Lee has written a memoir about those five grueling months in North Korea. Although the ending is certainly not a surprise, Lee successfully held my attention throughout the book. From being pulled across the Tumen River, from China into North Korea by North Korean soldiers, to the uncertainty of the women's future in North Korea (and later their future period), there's never a slow moment in this book. Lee tries to keep her faith, and sees kindness in some of her captors, but anyone would have serious doubts locked away in North Korea. She loses weight, gets sick, feels depressed, and can't even see her coworker Laura for several of those months in North Korea, even though they were held on the same floor. Lee's husband and four year old daughter wait patiently in Los Angeles for Lee to return, but even they feel hopeless as American-North Korean talks slow down. This is an uplifting story and a unique look into a country that's mysterious to most Americans.

This heartfelt and honest memoir of a journalist taken captive in North Korea is a gentle and compelling work that I recommend.

A few months ago, I read Somewhere Inside: One Sister's Captivity in North Korea and the Other's Fight to Bring Her Home, which covers the same events as this book, but from the perspective of Laura Ling (Lee's co-defendant) and Lisa Ling (Laura's sister, who worked from the States to bring Lee and Ling home). In that book, Lee played a small role, as a quiet co-worker and translator, and the reader didn't get much insight into who Lee was. While Lee's book has fewer intriguing geopolitical details and angry outbursts, it serves as a beautiful companion to the work by the Lings.

Lee begins with a short background, describing her journey from South Korea to California, including marrying an actor and giving birth to a daughter. She judges her work habits with a harshness that can only come in hindsight, but the narrative picks up when the focus shifts to Lee's infectious passion for the people of North Korea and their efforts to escape the material and political hardships of their homeland (in fairness, I should note that Lee spends some time discussing political vs. economic refugees, but she then sounds surprised when she actually meets a refugee who has political concerns, but I think dismissing Lee's interview subjects as economic refugees in search of a better job takes too lightly a view of the level of economic hardship in North Korea and the miserable conditions that no one should have to suffer). Lee's narrative then takes a chronological structure as she describes her captivity in North Korea while she waited to be rescued. Strong emotion comes through in the numerous quotes from Lee's journal that she chooses to share, and the last thirty pages are guaranteed to jerk a tear or two.

From the book description, I had expected more explicit spirituality in this work, with Lee teaching lessons for readers. For a long while, I was disappointed that Lee's faith seemed to be genuine but not terribly mature. By the end of the book, though, I greatly admired the path that Lee chose with respect to writing about her faith. She is clear about when she doubts and when she has faith, when Scriptures encouraged her and when she found comfort in other quotes. The book is less of a teaching from an expert and more of an invitation to watch the sometimes stumbling walk of a pilgrim, and it is honest and true and very much the appropriate story to tell.

Honestly, if a reader is interested in the true story of what happened to Euna Lee and Laura Ling, Somewhere Inside is more exciting and comprehensive, and I recommend it over this book for that reader. Anyone just interested in an open-hearted testimony from a woman who went through a traumatic and transformative experience, though, will surely benefit from reading The World Is Bigger Now, and I recommend it.