U.S. repeats call on N. Korea to free American reporters

(ATTN: CHANGES headline, lead; UPDATES with Clinton's remarks, other details
throughout)
By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 8 (Yonhap) -- The United States Monday urged North Korea to
release two American journalists sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp for
illegally entering the North while on a reporting tour.
"We once again urge North Korea to grant their immediate release, on humanitarian
grounds," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a joint press
availability with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda. "We are pursuing
every possible approach that we can consider in order to persuade the North
Koreans to release them and send these young women home. And we're engaged in all
possible ways, through every possible channel, to secure their release."
North Korea earlier in the day said that Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for
the San Francisco-based Internet news outlet Current TV, have been given 12 years
of hard labor for an unspecified "grave crime" and "illegal border crossing."
They were detained by North Korean soldiers along the Chinese border on March 17
while working on a story about North Korean refugees.
The top U.S. diplomat expressed "deep concerns" about "the length of the
sentences and the fact that this trial was conducted totally in secret with no
observers."
The Swedish ambassador in Pyongyang, Mats Foyer, has met with the journalists
three times, but was denied access to their trial. Foyer represents U.S.
interests in North Korea, which does not have diplomatic relations with
Washington.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly also called on North Korea to release the
journalists, saying, "We're very, very concerned about this sentence."
Clinton renewed calls for the journalists to be released without becoming pawns
in the recent nuclear crisis. North Korea conducted its second nuclear test on
May 25, drawing condemnations from the international community.
"We view these as entirely separate matters," she said. "We think the
imprisonment, trial and sentencing of Laura and Euna should be viewed as a
humanitarian matter. There are other concerns that we and the international
community have with North Korea, but those are separate and apart from what's
happening to the two journalists."
Kelly said that the U.S. has been engaged in active diplomacy to secure the
journalists' release, but would not elaborate.
"I'm just going to keep all of our diplomatic communications private," he said.
Clinton was cautious on the reports that former U.S. Vice President Al Gore,
chairman of Current TV, may fly to North Korea soon to negotiate the release of
the journalists.
"I think, for understandable reasons, I'm not going to go into our private
diplomatic efforts," she said.
Clinton hinted last week that she may consider sending Gore or New Mexico Gov.
Bill Richardson to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of the journalists.
"We have explored other approaches, including the use of special representatives
strictly for this humanitarian mission," she said at that time. "But we know that
they're in the middle of a trial in Pyongyang."
Gore is believed by some to be the right man for the role once played by
Richardson, who visited Pyongyang as a congressman to successfully negotiate the
release of two Americans in 1994 and 1996.
Clinton said Sunday that she had sent a letter to North Korea to seek the release
of the reporters and apologize for their illegal border crossing.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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