(CNN) -- The two U.S. journalists released from North Korea last month after five months in captivity said "the psychological wounds of imprisonment are slow to heal." Freed U.S. journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee said they spent less than a minute on North Korean soil. In a column posted on the Los Angeles Times Web site Tuesday night, Laura Ling and Euna Lee also said they were seized by North Korean soldiers on Chinese soil. They raised suspicions about their guide and wondered if they had been "lured into a trap." "We didn't spend more than a minute on North Korean soil before turning back, but it is a minute we deeply regret," they said.
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Laura Ling and Euna Lee were arrested after stepping into North Korea
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Journalists were reporting on North Korean defections to China, human trafficking
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"We didn't spend more than a minute on North Korean soil," they wrote
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In retrospect, they raise questions about guide's involvement in capture
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"When we set out, we had no intention of leaving @placeholder, but when our guide beckoned for us to follow him beyond the middle of the river, we did, eventually arriving at the riverbank on the North Korean side.
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"When we set out, we had no intention of leaving China, but when our guide beckoned for us to follow him beyond the middle of the river, we did, eventually arriving at the riverbank on the @placeholder side.
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"He pointed out a small village in the distance where he told us that North Koreans waited in safe houses to be smuggled into @placeholder via a well-established network that has escorted tens of thousands across the porous border," they wrote.
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The women said they became nervous and headed back to @placeholder.
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We were firmly back inside @placeholder when the soldiers apprehended us."
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"We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on @placeholder soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers.
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They violently dragged us back across the ice to @placeholder and marched us to a nearby army base, where we were detained."