Clinton calls on N. Korea to free U.S. journalists held in N. Korea

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 9 (Yonhap) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said
Tuesday that the U.S. was doing all it can to get the release of two American
journalists detained in North Korea, but fell short of saying if she will send an
envoy to Pyongyang.

"We are working, as I said yesterday, in every way open to us to persuade the
North Korean government to release the two journalists on a humanitarian basis,"
Clinton told reporters in a joint press availability with Mongolian Foreign
Minister Sukhbaatar Batbold. "We're going to continue to pursue every possible
avenue."
North Korea said Monday that Euna Lee and Laura Ling, reporters for the San
Francisco-based Internet news outlet Current TV, have been given 12 years in
confinement at 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.
Reports said that the U.S. had already proposed to send former U.S. Vice
President Al Gore, chairman of Current TV, or New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson to
North Korea to negotiate the release of the journalists.
Clinton told an ABC program Sunday that she had sent a letter to North Korea to
seek the release of the reporters and apologize for their illegal border
crossing.
Richardson visited Pyongyang as a congressman to successfully negotiate the
release of two Americans in 1994 and 1996.
On the question of a possible visit to Pyongyang by either Gore or Richardson,
Clinton said Monday, "I'm not going to go into our private diplomatic efforts."
She hinted last week at a possible visit to Pyongyang by an envoy after the
journalists' trial.
"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."
The Swedish ambassador in Pyongyang, Mats Foyer, has met with the journalists
three times, but was denied access to their trial Thursday. Foyer represents U.S.
interests in North Korea, which does not have diplomatic relations with
Washington.
Clinton has warned the North not to link the journalists to the recent crisis
created by North Korea's second nuclear test last month.
"We think the imprisonment, trial and sentencing of Laura and Euna should be
viewed as a humanitarian matter," she said Monday. "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."
The U.N. Security Council is seeking overall arms embargoes and financial
sanctions on North Korea for its May 25 nuclear test.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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