Euna Lee, Laura Ling Trial Underway
June 3, 2009
PYONGYANG, North Korea—The Korea Central News Agency (KCNA) announced in a Web site bulletin that the trial of American journalists Euna Lee (Seung-eun Lee) and Laura Ling began at 3 p.m. (11 p.m. PST /0600 GMT) here in the capital of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)
The reporters are charged with illegal entry in to North Korea and intention to commit hostile acts, charges that could carry sentences of 10 years hard labor.
This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in China. The student-led protest which ended in a violent military action against the protesters lasted 10 days—10 days that changed the life of Chaohua Wang forever.
For 10 days, the 36-year-old graduate student in literature refused to leave Tiananmen Square in Beijing except for brief negotiations with top government officials and an overnight stay at a hospital after she collapsed from hunger.
In the aftermath of the Tiananmen crackdown, she became one of only two women on China’s list of 21 most wanted student leaders who defiantly stood up against the military might of their government and survived the ensuing massacre.
Now 56, she has finally reached a long-awaited goal — she will participate in the June 11 Ph.D. hooding ceremony for UCLA’s Graduate Division, after completing graduate studies that were unexpectedly interrupted by the uprising that held China’s — and the world’s — attention for a month and a half.
Read Meg Sullivan’s UCLA Today story about Dr. Wang here.
via Kevin Roderick’s L.A. Observed.
