N. Korea says two U.S. journalists admitted to political motive for smear campaign

SEOUL, June 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea said Tuesday that two convicted U.S.
journalists admitted to crossing its border with China and shooting video for a
smear campaign against Pyongyang over its human rights conditions.
The official Korean Central News Agency released a detailed report "laying bare
the facts about the crimes committed by the American journalists,"
Chinese-American Laura Ling, 32, and Korean-American Seung-Un Lee, 36, who are
reporters for the San Francisco-based Current TV.
"At the trial the accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts
committed, prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist
system of the DPRK (North Korea) by faking up moving images aimed at falsifying
its human rights performance and hurling slanders and calumnies at it," the
report said.
The journalists were captured by North Korean guards near the border with China
on March 17. They were sentenced June 8 to 12 years of hard labor.
The report said the prison term is counted from March 22 when the two were
formally detained for an investigation. The ruling cannot be appealed, it said.
"We are following with a high degree of vigilance the attitude of the U.S. which
spawned the criminal act against the DPRK," the report said.
hkim@yna.co.kr
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