THREE helpless young North Korean escapees stare out from their cell, caught in the middle of a tug of war to decide whether they will be set free or sent home to face deprivation, punishment and the risk of death. The trio - an orphaned brother and sister aged 12 and 13 and a sick girl of 16 - are imprisoned in a crumbling jail in Vientiane, the Lao capital, only a few hundred metres from the Mekong river that divides Laos from Thailand.
