By VIJAY JOSHI
The Associated Press
Monday, June 8, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's top court convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison Monday, intensifying the reclusive nation's confrontation with the United States.
The North's Central Court tried TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee during proceedings running from last Thursday to Monday and found them guilty of a "grave crime" against the nation, and of illegally crossing into North Korea, the country's state-run Korean Central News Agency said.
It said the court "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor." The KCNA report gave no other details.
Ling and Lee - who were 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.
Many analysts believe there is a good chance the two woman will be freed. They say the reporters are being used by Pyongyang as bargaining chips in its standoff with South Korea and the United States, which are pushing for U.N. sanctions to punish the North for its latest nuclear test and a barrage of missile tests.
By sentencing them to prison, North Korea has "paved the way for a political pardon and a diplomatic solution," said Yang Moo-jin, a professor at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.
He noted that a pardon can only be issued after a conviction and that the regime's courts were not about to find the reporters innocent, which would imply they were wrongly arrested.
Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul's Dongguk University, said the sentence - the maximum possible allowed by the North's laws - could have been a reaction to strong statements from the U.S., including threats of sanctions and putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
"I think this is the North's response to recent hard-line moves by the U.S.," Kim said. "But the sentence doesn't mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end."
It doesn't mean much? This is all bluff and bravado?
Nuclear tests, mobilization of its army, threats against anyone who attempts to stop any of its ships, threats of nuclear war ... talking certainly has helped with Kim. And Obama allowed the journalists to be tried and convicted and has done nothing. Does he hope this goes away?
North Korea
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