LOC09:51
06:51 GMT
TOKYO, June 8 (KUNA) -- North Korea's top court sentenced two American
journalists to 12 years in a labor camp for illegal entry into the country and
an unspecified "grave crime," the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency
(KCNA) reported Monday.
"The Central Court staged a trial of American journalists Laura Ling and
Seung-eun Lee (Euna Lee) from June 4 to 8," the KCNA said in a statement. "The
trial confirmed the grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and
their illegal border crossing, and sentenced each of them to 12 years of
reform through labor," it said. The KCNA did not disclose what the grave crime
was. Given that the verdict was handed down at North Korea's highest court,
there will be no possibility of an appeal.
Chinese-American Ling and Korean-American Lee, female reporters for the
online media outlet Current TV, a San Francisco-based Internet outlet
co-founded by former US Vice President Al Gore, were detained on March 17 near
the Chinese-North Korean border while filming a documentary on North Korean
escapees.
Tensions have sharply risen since North Korea's rocket launch on April 5,
which the UN Security Council swiftly condemned as violating a UN resolution
barring its ballistic activity. The North also conducted its second nuclear
test on May 25.
According to South Korea's Yonhap News Agency, the Americans' detention is
the third since 1994, when North Korea held a US pilot whose military chopper
was shot down after straying into North Korea. Two years later, another
American citizen, Evan Hunziker, was held for three months on suspicion of
spying after swimming across the Yalu River bordering North Korea and China.
Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, then a US congressman, flew to Pyongyang
to successfully negotiate his release. (end)
mk.bz.
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