US Journo Ling: Koreans 'Hit Me'

Laura Ling and Euna Lee didn't go quietly when the North Koreans arrested them. In an interview with Larry King on CNN, Ling reveals that the men who arrested them beat them into submission. Though she admits they had crossed, briefly, into North Korean territory, she says they were actually arrested on the Chinese side of the border. “They wanted to get us back to North Korea and do whatever they could to get us back. So they hit me.”

Ling also revealed that Bill Clinton managed to secure their release purely through an earlier act of kindness. “There was no deal,” says Ling. “What President Clinton said on the plane ride home was that Kim Jong Il told him, 'You were the first person who reached out to me when my father died, even before my allies. I've always remembered that.'” Ling, along with sister Lisa, released a book about the ordeal Tuesday.
(More Laura Ling stories.)