2 U.S. journalists on trial in North for ‘hostile acts’

Politics

Published: 05 Jun. 2009, 00:51

2 U.S. journalists on trial in North for ‘hostile acts’

American journalist Lisa Ling breaks down while addressing attendees of a vigil for fellow journalists Laura Ling, her sister, and Euna Lee, Wednesday at the Wokcano Cafe in Santa Monica, California. Laura Ling and Lee, who were detained by the North in March for illegal entry into North Korea and “hostile acts,” went on trial in Pyongyang, North Korea. [AP]

As pleas for their release continued in the United States, North Korea yesterday put two American journalists on trial for alleged hostile acts.

Through its state-run Korean Central News Agency, the North said its Central Court started the trial of Laura Ling and Euna Lee at 3 p.m. yesterday “on the basis of the indictment already brought against them.”

The two were captured near the China-North Korea border on the Tumen River on March 17. They were reporting on the North Korean refugees for San Francisco-based Current TV, a cable network co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

The U.S. previously said Lee and Ling appeared to have been charged with espionage. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has called the charges “baseless” and urged that the journalists be immediately released.

The journalists’ families have also spoken out to seek their release.

“We aren’t certain of the details of what happened on March 17, but we can say with absolute certainty that when the girls left U.S. soil, they never intended to set foot onto North Korean territory,” the families said in a statement.

In Washington and seven other U.S. cities yesterday, families, friends and colleagues of Ling and Lee held candlelight vigils to demand their release.

“I wish this were all a bad dream,” Ling’s sister, Lisa, said in Washington. “We have a golden opportunity for a fresh start between our two countries.

“Instead of trying to get reacquainted with one another through missile launches, nuclear tests and terse rhetoric,” she continued, “why not get to know each other over these two amazing girls who just wanted to tell a story?”

In 1996, U.S. citizen Evan Hunziker was captured swimming in the Yalu River, also bordering North Korea and China, while under the influence of alcohol. Hunziker was held for three months on charges of spying. Then-U.S. Congressman Bill Richardson, currently New Mexico’s governor, negotiated Hunziker’s release.

A South Korean worker at the Kaesong Industrial Complex has been in custody in North Korea since March 30 for allegedly criticizing the North Korean regime and inciting a female North Korean colleague to defect.

Seoul hasn’t been granted access to him despite repeated requests. Earlier this week, the Unification Ministry said it couldn’t confirm a comment by an intelligence source that the North had moved him to Pyongyang in an apparent attempt to indict him.

By Yoo Jee-ho [jeeho@joongang.co.kr]