North Korea Sentences US Journalists To 12 Years Labor
June 7, 2009 by national
Filed under Incident Reports
North Korea’s state news agency says the country’s top court has convicted two U.S. journalists, one of whom grew up in the Sacramento area, and sentenced them to 12 years in labor prison. The Korean Central News Agency says the Central Court tried American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from June 4 to 8.
It said Monday the trial confirmed an unspecified “grave crime” against the nation, and of illegally crossing into North Korea.
The report says the court “sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor.”
North Korea Puts Two U.S. Journalists On Trial
North Korea put two U.S. journalists on trial on Thursday on charges of illegally entering the state with “hostile intent”, in a case that could worsen tension with Washington after Pyongyang’s nuclear test last week.
The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of the U.S. media outlet Current TV, were taken into custody in March near the border between China and North Korea while working on a story. The TV network was co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
North Korea’s KCNA news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch that the trial would begin at 0600 GMT (3 p.m. local time) at one of the country’s highest courts.
Experts say the pair could face a sentence of 10 years or more of hard labour in the reclusive state. They add a guilty verdict is almost certain in a North Korean justice system that protects the unquestioned rule of leader Kim Jong-il.
via North Korea puts two U.S. journalists on trial | Reuters.
