2 US journalists on trial in North Korea

SEOUL – North Korea’s top court began hearing the case yesterday 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 labour 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 yesterday that the trial would begin at 15h00 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.Back home, the reporters’ families pleaded for clemency.’All we can do is hope the North Korean government will show leniency,’ Ling’s sister, TV journalist Lisa Ling, said in an emotional plea at a California vigil on Wednesday night. ‘If at any point they committed a transgression, then our families are deeply, deeply sorry. We know the girls are sorry as well.’State-run media have not defined the exact charges against them, but South Korean legal experts said conviction for ‘hostility’ or espionage could mean five to 10 years in a labour camp. Choi said a ruling by the top court would be final.The circumstances of their arrest were hazy. The Current TV team had gone to the Chinese border city of Yanji to report on the trafficking of North Korean women, Lisa Ling said.- Nampa-AP