WASHINGTON (AFP) — One of two US reporters held in North Korea has turned to meditation to stay positive as she awaits trial next week, she said in a letter to her sister.
North Korea plans on June 4 to try two US journalists -- Euna Lee and Laura Ling -- who were detained in March on the border with China. The trial comes as tension soars with North Korea after its nuclear test.
Laura Ling, in a letter to her sister released on the social networking website Facebook, said she had "cried so much" during her imprisonment but is gradually feeling better.
"I try very hard to think about positive things, but sometimes it is hard to," she wrote in the letter. The family said the letter was dated May 15 and is the only one they had received from her.
Ling said she was allowed some days to go outside for fresh air.
"I also sit and meditate. I breathe deeply and think about positive things that have happened in the day," she wrote.
"For example, I think 'I?m lucky I made it through another day.' I?m lucky my family is working so hard to get me released," she wrote.
Lee and Ling were detained before dawn on March 17 along the narrow Tumen River which marks the border with China. The pair, who work for Current TV in California, were working on a story about refugees fleeing the North.
North Korea -- one of the worst violators of human rights according to the US State Department -- has said it will try the women for "hostile acts" and illegally entering the country.
Ling's sister said the two reporters' families had been relatively silent due to the sensitivity of the situation but were speaking out ahead of the trial.
"Given the fact that our girls are in the midst of a global nuclear stand-off, we cannot wait any longer. We have to speak out!" sister Lisa Ling wrote in a Facebook posting.
She said she would appear on Monday on two popular US talk-shows -- CNN's "Larry King Live" and NBC's "The Today Show."
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