A LONG time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I started out my journalism career with aspirations to be a war correspondent.

Yes, go ahead and laugh. Everyone did! Anyone who knew me at the time, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, absolutely killed themselves laughing at the idea. Joanne? A war correspondent? Does she realise there is no air-conditioning or running water involved? Does she realise she might, like, die?

I'll admit: My motives were not exactly the most noble. I'm not the biggest advocate for living a long life, and I figured if I was going to die young, what better way than to make a mark in journalism history and go out with a bang? Literally?

Alas, the closest I came to a hot spot was back when I was rookie reporter at this newspaper, and the Red Cross had invited me to accompany its aid efforts during a violent episode in Indonesia. I really wanted to go. I even took out extra insurance just in case. In the end though, the editors decided that sending a guy would be more prudent.

Since then, I've watched Daniel Pearl get beheaded by terrorists on the Internet (something I couldn't bring myself to do again when businessman Nick Berg suffered the same fate). Many journalists have been kidnapped, tortured and killed while reporting on conflicts in the Middle East.

Closer to home, my senior colleague Ching Cheong, ST's China correspondent, was accused of providing state secrets to Taiwan and subsequently imprisoned from April 2005 to February 2008 - more than 1,000 days in prison.

Ching Cheong post-incarceration.
ST Photo: Chew Seng Kim

And now, two journalists, working for former US Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media agency, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, have been sentenced to 12 years for illegal entry by North Korea while working on a story on the Korea-China border.

Decapitation, torture, prison in communist countries - these were not situations I'd imagined when I naively wanted to be a war correspondent. I'd just wanted to be Christiane Amanpour and, at worst, step on a land mine and die a quick death.

Ah, the ignorance of youth.

As I got older - but not necessarily wiser - fate has changed the direction of my media career: Print, television, online; politics, business and even a little bit of the arts. And although I've been on a few overseas assignments, it's never been a prolonged stint.

But I still might, at some point, want to be a foreign correspondent - just maybe not one assigned to a hot spot. (Although the thought of being an embedded journalist with military cover may not be so dangerous. Hmm.)

My detractors will no doubt re-iterate their fixation with my supposedly long, manicured nails, mascara-ed eyes, penchant for Kindles and other off-point things about me to ridicule my naivete. War correspondent, Joanne? You've got to be joking.

But look at pictures of Euna Lee and Laura Ling, they're not exactly wearing fatigues either. So looks, it seems, can be deceiving.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling.
Photo: AP

And speaking of looks, my colleague Ching Cheong - who remains a beacon of inspiration for young reporters in The Straits Times newsroom - lost quite a few kilos when he served his time in jail. I can't even begin to imagine how Euna Lee and Laura Ling are going to handle 12 years in a labour camp. Physical toll aside, how are they going to weather the years mentally and emotionally?

I really hope the new US administration kicks off its international relations in Asia by saving these two ladies - a mean feat given North Korea's recent hawkishness in long-range missile activity. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton certainly has her job cut out for her - especially when the two journalists work for Al Gore - Hillary's husband's former VP.

The heart of this would-be "war correspondent" goes out to Euna and Laura. Let's hope it's all just posturing in the global balance-of-power.

Read: Used by North Korea as pawns.