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North Korea: California Journalists go on trial

Posted: 04 Jun 2009 12:20 PM PDT

Editor: We need Bill Richardson? - Twice in the 1990s, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, then a congressman, was sent as a special envoy to negotiate the release of Americans detained by North Korea.

Concern Mounts For Bay Area Jailed Journalists

SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea's top court began hearing the case Thursday of two American journalists accused of crossing into the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts" --
Charges that could draw a 10-year sentence in a labor camp. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV, were arrested March 17 near the North Korean border while on a reporting trip to China.

North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch earlier Thursday that the trial would begin at 3 p.m. (0600 GMT; 2 a.m. EDT) in Pyongyang's Central Court. Hours later, there was no word on the status of the proceedings.

The trial began at a time of mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula following the regime's provocative May 25 nuclear test. With discussions continuing at the United Nations and in Washington on how to punish the regime for its defiance, there were fears the women could become political pawns in the standoff with Pyongyang.

Analyst Choi Eun-suk, a professor of North Korean law at Kyungnam University, said the court could convict the women and then the government could use them as bargaining chips in negotiations with the U.S. "The North is likely to release and deport them to the U.S. -- if negotiations with the U.S. go well," Choi said.

Source: KTVU - Link
Related: "Dearest Bonehead" Please let our people go!