(EDITORIAL from the Korea Herald on July 13)

Fate of reporters

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week asked North Korea for amnesty
for two American journalists who were sentenced to 12 years of "reform through
labor" last month.

Yuna Lee and Laura Ling were captured by North Korean border guards near that
country's border with China on March 17. The two reporters were on an assignment
for the San Francisco-based Current TV, researching the plight of North Korean
refugees in China.
On June 8, the North Korean court sentenced the two women to 12 year of reform
through labor for illegal border crossing and other unspecified "grave crime."
Last week, Laura Ling called her sister Lisa in the United States. According to
Lisa, Laura admitted to violating North Korean law and asked the U.S. government
to help. Lisa said in a television interview that her sister said that they are
sorry for everything that happened. "We need diplomacy," Laura is said to have
told her sister.
The next day, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged North Korea to grant
amnesty to the two reporters, saying that the reporters have expressed "great
remorse for this incident." The call for an amnesty is a shift from previous
calls for the women to be released on humanitarian grounds. It means that the
United States accepts North Korean court's findings against the two reporters. A
U.S. State Department spokesman said that the U.S. accepts the conviction and is
now calling for their release.
An academic who was recently in Pyongyang said North Korean officials told him
that the United States should offer "a remorseful acknowledgment" of the
journalists' reporting. The two are reportedly being kept in a Pyongyang
guesthouse, meaning their sentences have not been carried out yet. The fact that
the sentences against them have not been carried out yet indicates that Pyongyang
will release the two reporters when their "desired conditions" are met.
North Korea is urged to return the two women to their families as soon as
possible. Ling is said to suffer from a health condition and Lee has a young
child waiting for her to come home. Pyongyang has sufficiently exploited the two
women's capture - it has Clinton accepting the North Korean court ruling and
asking for amnesty for the reporters.
The process to release Lee and Ling should not be dragged out for too long. Nor
should Pyongyang attempt to use the two women as bargaining chips in the ongoing
nuclear standoff between the two countries.
(END)