N. Korea says 2 American journalists to be put on trial

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BEIJING, April 24 Kyodo -
Two U.S. journalists detained last month on North Korea's border with China are
to be put on trial to face criminal charges, North Korea's official media
reported Friday.
After conclusion of investigation into the activities of the two women, an
official organ of the state ''formally decided to refer them to a trial on the
basis of the confirmed crimes committed by them,'' the Korean Central News
Agency said.
According to U.S. media reports, Laura Ling and Euna Lee were captured by North
Korean guards along the Tumen River border with China as they were filming for
former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's Current TV network on the topic of the
North Koreans fleeing their country.
While Friday's two-paragraph KCNA dispatch did not say what the charges were, a
report by the official news agency on March 31 had said that they had illegally
entered the country and that has been ''confirmed by evidence.''
The U.S. State Department said in late March that the Swedish Embassy in
Pyongyang, which represents U.S. interests in North Korea, had been given
access to the reporters separately.
North Korea and the United States do not have diplomatic relations.
==Kyodo