North Korea sets date for trial of two U.S. reporters

(ATTN: UPDATES with details, news reports on family visit to U.S. state department,
expert's view)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, May 14 (Yonhap) -- Two U.S. female journalists detained in North Korea for
illegally entering the country will stand trial on June 4, state media said
Thursday, amid speculation the sensitive case may draw dialogue between Pyongyang
and Washington.
Analysts suspect North Korea may be following in the footsteps of Iran, which
arrested, tried and released a female American journalist amid diplomatic
contacts with the United States over the past few months.
"The Central Court of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea decided to try
(the) American journalists on June 4 according to the indictment of the competent
organ," the Korean Central News Agency said in a one-sentence report.
The American journalists -- Euna Lee and Laura Ling from San Francisco-based
Current TV, started by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore -- were arrested by
North Korean guards near the border with China on March 17.
Pyongyang confirmed the arrest on March 31 and said an investigation was underway
into suspicions that they illegally entered the country and committed unspecified
"hostile acts." On April 24, the North said the investigation was completed and
that the journalists would be put on trial.
According to North Korea's criminal law, foreigners who commit "hostility toward
the Korean people" may be sent to labor camps for five to 10 years. Heavier
punishments can be imposed depending on the seriousness of the crime. Seoul
officials could not say whether this stipulation would apply to the journalists.
Observers believe North Korea's decision on the American journalists is
politically motivated, as the administration of Barack Obama has so far remained
cool towards a series of provocations by Pyongyang.
North Korea withdrew from nuclear disarmament talks in protest of the U.N.
Security Council's rebuke for its April 5 rocket launch. Pyongyang has also said
it may conduct a second nuclear test and inter-continental ballistic missile
tests.
The U.S. special representative for North Korea policy, Stephen Bosworth, skipped
North Korea in his Asian tour this week. The U.S. State Department said it is too
early for Bosworth to visit North Korea.
North Korea rejected Bosworth's proposal to visit Pyongyang in early March.
Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul,
said North Korea's behavior resembles Iran's handling of an Iranian-American
journalist.
Iran released the journalist, Roxana Saberi, on Monday. She had been in prison
since late January on charges of spying for the U.S.
Radio Free Asia reported that the family members of Ling and Lee recently visited
the U.S. State Department, a visit that coincided with Saberi's release.
"I see a great deal of similarities between the behaviors of North Korea and Iran
this year," Yang said, noting their rocket launches and the arrests of U.S.
journalists.
"Chances are Washington and Pyongyang will have contacts before and after the
trial," he said, "North Korea, in the middle of a coercive strategy, cannot just
turn around and ask for dialogue. It needs some sort of mediating event to make a
turnaround, which could be these journalists' case."
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)