American Journalists Sentenced To 12 Years Hard Labor In North Korea

 

PYONGYANG, NORTH KOREA (June 8, 2009) – American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee have been sentenced to 12 years in a North Korean labor prison, the maximum sentence available for the charges against them.

The San Francisco-based Current TV journalists were detained along the China-North Korea border on March 17 while covering stories about defectors and the trafficking of North Korean women. The Central Court of North Korea found them guilty of "a grave crime against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing."

The U.S. State Department today appealed to North Korea to release the two women on "humanitarian grounds," while Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton this morning is threatening to put North Korea back on the "terrorist watch list," according to CNN.

Last week in Europe, President Barack Obama hinted that the world's patience with North Korea might be wearing thin, following the country's recent tests of nuclear weapons and long-range missiles. In response to North Korea's latest nuclear test, the U.S. State Department over weekend also hinted at possible interdiction of North Korean air and sea shipments that are suspected of carrying weapons or nuclear technology, possibly with the assistance of China, according to The New York Times.

Current TV is a venture of former U.S. vice president Al Gore.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations during the Bill Clinton administration who has served as a special envoy to North Korea, today said that the "good news" about the journalists' conviction is that now, after the legal process, the "negotiating for their release can begin."

"North Korea is using them as bargaining chips," Richardson said today on CNN. "They are very aware of how they are viewed by the world. They want attention ... They like to be unpredictable. It's a high-stakes poker game, and they are using [the journalists] as bargaining chips. But I'm relatively hopeful that we can secure their release." A former Congressman and U.S. Energy Secretary, in 1994, Richardson successfully bargained with North Korea for the release of downed pilots.

According to Reporters without Borders, Ling and Lee may not have even been in North Korea at the time of their capture, but may have been filming on the north bank of the Tumen River on the China side when North Korean guards crossed the Tumen and detained them.

According to Swedish diplomats, there were no observers allowed in the North Korean courtroom during Ling and Lee's trial, but the two were represented by a lawyer. The details of the charges against them included illegal entry into North Korea and "hostile acts."

According to the journalists' families, the duo "never intended" to enter North Korean soil but were going to report their stories from Chinese soil.

 

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