Ling and Lee

I dunno, maybe it's me, but with all the happiness and joy over the return of Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea, there seems to be one wee little technical detail that hasn't been fully explained...

How the fuck did the North Korean authorities get hold of them?

If they did, in fact, sneak across the border then what the hell made them think that they were somehow going to be immune from NoKo rules, regulations, and laws? Just because they were "journalists"? Why should that could for anything? I've spent no small amount of time travelling around while in the Navy, and I can't think of ANYPLACE that would tolerate anybody violating local laws, no matter who they are. If those two did sneak across the border into a totalitarian military-controlled regime, I figure they got off damn lucky with only 140 days in the clink; it would have served them right if they'd had to serve half the sentence before getting out for good behavior...