North Korea recently sentenced two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, to 12 years of hard labor for illegally crossing the North Korean border.  By all accounts imprisonment in North Korea, especially in a labor camp, is horrible and potentially life-threatening.  The question now is whether their early release can be negotiated. 

This situation poses an extreme example of a difficult negotiation.  Power and culture are key factors.  The challenge in this negotiation is to understand what matters to the North Koreans and to use that understanding to work towards an agreement to release Ling and Lee.  But gaining this understanding is complicated because the North Korean government keeps the country closed to most foreigners which means that few U.S. citizens have experience in North Korea, much less experience negotiating with the government.  Reportedly the State Department is engaged on Ling and Lee’s behalf—but without full diplomatic representation that engagement is limited (particularly when the North Koreans prevent the U.S. Envoy for North Korea from even entering the country).  Potential candidates to act as negotiators include New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson (who has successfully negotiated with the North Koreans in the past) and former Vice-President Al Gore (who owns Current TV, the company the journalists were working for).

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times posted an interesting analysis yesterday on his blog (http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/22/laura-ling-euna-lee-and-north-korea/).  According to Kristof what might complicate this negotiation is that it is more about internal power politics, as the ailing “Dear Leader” Kim Jong-il tries to position his son to take over power after his death, and less about the United States. 

For now, unfortunately for Lee and Ling, it seems part of the unavoidable strategy in this negotiation is waiting for the right time to begin discussions.