N. Korea Convicts 2 U.S. Journalists

Prison Convicted High Court Gives Women 12 Years In Labor Prison No Chance For Appeal For "Grave Crime"..

by CBS/AP

Published: Mon, June 08, 2009 - 8:36 am CST

(CBS/AP)
The Obama administration is working "through all possible channels" to secure the release of two young women journalists sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea, the White House said Monday.

In a cryptic two-sentence report, the North's state news agency said Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36 were sentenced after the five-day trial ended Monday. The two were found guilty of a "grave crime" against North Korea and of illegally crossing into the reclusive nation's territory.

The court "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," said the report, without giving other details. The phrase refers to a prison term, according to Choi Eun-suk, a North Korean law expert at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.

He said North Korean law calls for transferring convicts to prison within 10 days after verdict.

The sentencing came amid soaring tensions fueled by the North's latest nuclear and missile tests. Many believe Pyongyang is using the journalists as bargaining chips as the U.N. debates a new resolution to punish the unpredictable country for its latest military threats.

Former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson on Monday called the sentencing part of "a high-stakes poker game" and said the time might be right for the United States to work out the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee with the country's leaders in Pyongyang.

"It is harsher than expected," Richardson said on NBC's "Today" show.

At the White House, deputy spokesman William Burton said in a statement: "The president is deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release."

Ling and Lee, working for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV, cannot appeal because they were tried in North Korea's highest court, where decisions are final.

Because of the lack of a legal appeal route, CBS News foreign affairs analyst Pamela Falk says the two women's release will depend on political negotiations at a time when the U.S. is also considering putting North Korea back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list.

"China will be key to negotiations for the journalists release," Falk added, "but Kim Jung Il is looking for concessions from the United States at the same time that the government in Pyongyang appears to be planning yet another missile test."

Some analysts believe negotiations will now begin that will likely lead to the journalists' release.

"North Korea refused to release them ahead of a court ruling because such a move could be seen as capitulating to the United States," said Hajime Izumi, professor of international relations and an expert on North Korea at the University of Shizuoka in Japan.

North Korea will certainly use the reporters as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States.

Hajime Izumi, North Korea expertBut now "North Korea may release them on humanitarian grounds and demand the U.S. provide humanitarian aid in return," he said. "North Korea will certainly use the reporters as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States."

Their release could come through a post-negotiation political pardon, said Yang Moo-jin, a colleague of Choi at the University of North Korean Studies.

Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the 12-year sentence - the maximum possible allowed by the North's laws - could have been a reaction to "hard-line" moves by the U.S., including threats of sanctions and putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.

"But the sentence doesn't mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end," he said.

Tensions have been running high since the North held its second underground nuclear blast May 25 and followed it up with several missile tests. U.S. officials have said the North appears to be preparing to test another long-range missile at a new launch pad.

The circumstances surrounding the trial of the two journalists and their arrest March 17 on the China-North Korean border have been shrouded in secrecy, as is typical of the reclusive nation. The trial was not open to the public or foreign observers, including the Swedish Embassy, which looks after American interests in the absence of diplomatic relations.

The pair were working on a story about the trafficking of women on the North Korea-China border, reports CBS News correspondent Barry Petersen, but the details of the arrests remain very vague - including whether they actually crossed into the communist state or were seized by the overzealous North Korean troops.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider said the former vice president has no comment. The South Korean government also did not comment. Alanna Zahn, a spokeswoman for the journalists' families, said the family members have no immediate comment.

Another American who was tried in North Korea in 1996 was treated more leniently. Evan C. Hunziker, apparently acting on a drunken dare, swam across the Yalu River - which marks the North's border with China - and was arrested after farmers found the man, then 26, naked. He was accused of spying and detained for three months before being freed after negotiations with a special U.S. envoy.

The North Koreans wanted Hunziker to pay a $100,000 criminal fine but eventually agreed on a $5,000 payment to settle a bill for a hotel where he was detained.

No Charge of Espionage

Richardson, who was instrumental in negotiating the release of U.S. citizens from North Korea in an incident in the 1990s, said "the good thing is that there is no charge of espionage." He also said now that the legal process has been completed, he thinks negotiations for their "humanitarian release" can begin.

Richardson said officials of the Obama administration had been in contact with him for his thoughts on how to proceed.

"This is a high-stakes poker game," he said. " ... In previous instances where I was involved in negotiating, you could not get this started until the legal process had ended."

Richardson, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination last year said he thought there were some positive signs of prospects for Ling's and Lee's release.

He said that North Korea so far has not, at least publicly, tried to tie this incident to differences with Washington over its nuclear program and the recent series of missile tests that it has conducted. He also said he has not seen particularly bellicose rhetoric from Pyongyang on the issue of the two women held there.

Richardson said he has talked to the families of the two journalists, but he also said talk of negotiations at this juncture is "premature" because a framework for such discussions would have to first be established.

"What we would try to seek," he said, "is some (kind of) political pardon, some sort of respite from political proceedings."

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