굳세어라 Euna Lee & Laura Ling

I have been following the story about two American journalists that were detained in North Korea.

Notice the word American.

They are both women and both American, born and raised. They work for Current TV, whose homepage contains titles like "Simpsons mock the bailouts!!! LOL" and "Deleted "Twilight" Sex Scene." I don't see any mention of the fact that two of their employees are being held in a notoriously tight-lipped Communist country. That fact infuriates me.

Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, traveled to South Korea and China with the goal of reporting about North Korea. They were at the border between North Korea and China at the time of their capture. The Korean Central News Agency, through the AP and the BBC:

"The illegal entry of US reporters into the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements," the KCNA said.

It said "a competent organ... is carrying on its investigation and, at the same time, making a preparation for indicting them at a trial on the basis of the already confirmed suspicions". [sic]

There is still some confusion as to exactly where the reporters were arrested.

South Korean television station YTN and unnamed diplomatic sources said that North Korean guards crossed the Tumen river into Chinese territory to arrest the journalists.

Pyongyang says the reporters crossed its border illegally.

They don't even know where these women were. No one will confirm and pinpoint a location. The United States' diplomacy is completely useless here. I mean that.

The US state department said a Swedish envoy acting on behalf of Washington, which has no diplomatic relations with Pyongyang, had visited the journalists for the first time over the weekend.

So ... let me get this straight. At the time of this BBC article, at 3:34 GMT on Tuesday, March 31, it is being stated that the journalists received their first diplomatic visitors over the weekend. Let's say that happened on Saturday, March 28.

The women were taken into North Korean custody on March 17. They didn't see anyone from their country until ELEVEN days after they were detained?? That utterly baffles me. How can they let two people sit in some North Korean detainment center for ELEVEN DAYS and not even send anyone post-haste?? How is that possible??

But, you know, it's going to be all right:

The United States says it is pursuing all diplomatic means available to secure the release of the two American women.

Yes.

We know how well North Korea responds to diplomacy. They are some well-behaved diplomats, those North Koreans!

Reuters and the New York Times provides another angle to this story:

Peter Beck, a Korean affairs specialist at the American University in Washington, said the issue over the reporters could provide a means for Pyongyang and Washington to talk to each other.

Beck said he expected Stephen Bosworth, Washington's envoy for North Korea, to be dispatched in the weeks after the rocket launch to secure the release of the two women.

"After the test and some hand wringing, we (the United States) will grope our way back to table. But we really don't know if the North is serious about negotiating at this point. It looks like they aren't," he said.

Now the journalists are just pawns in the issue over the North Korean rocket launch? They're an excuse for Pyongyang and Washington to talk to each other? Why doesn't that disturb people?

I have heard so much about Chris Brown beating up Rihanna. I have seen several websites today talking about how Josh Hartnett went to the hospital. Many posts about Gisele and her feelings towards her new husband's ex-fiancee and baby.

Why isn't anyone talking about these two women that are being kept in North Korea? A country that, historically, has no qualms about killing whenever they feel like it?

I feel sickened and disheartened that these women have now been in custody for two weeks. I hope that they are not too frightened, that they are alive and well. I hope that they don't lose faith in their country, because that would just make their hours crawl that much slower.

Are these Americans being treated as "Americans"? Because they aren't white with blonde hair and blue eyes? Because they perhaps look as though they belong 'over there,' in the Korean peninsula or in China?

In this day and age, are there still second-class American citizens?

And does this mean that I am one, as well?