A North Korean court has convicted Current TV reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, for "grave" crimes and illegal entry and has sentences them to 12 years hard labor:
SEOUL, June 8 (Reuters) - North Korea found two U.S. journalists it has held since March guilty of illegal entry and sentenced them to 12 years hard labour, its official KCNA news agency said on Monday.
The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, of U.S. media outlet Current TV, were arrested while working on a story near the border between North Korea and China. Their trial opened on Thursday.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
No word yet from the U.S. Government or from Al Gore (Current TV is his enterprise) on a response other than this story on June 4th that the U.S. Government might send Gore:
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The United States might send former US vice president Al Gore to Pyongyang in order to negotiate the release of two American journalists on trial in North Korea for illegal entry.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly did not rule out such a possibility when asked if it would make sense to send Gore, who is chairman of the California station Current TV, which employs the two journalists.
http://news.yahoo.com/...
Stories of North Korea's labor camps have filtered out over the years to show the frightening conditions:
Yodok, where inmates toiled 15 hours or more a day on rations meager even by the standards of the impoverished North for such deeds as criticizing the government or fleeing the country because of famine, Kim said.
The only woman among the seven - Pang Young Sil - "shriveled to the size of a dog" by the time she arrived in Yodok in July 2000 after months of torture by North Korea's notorious National Security Agency and died two months later, Kim said. Another North Korean who was not among the seven but was incarcerated with the five at Yodok corroborated Kim's account in a separate interview.
http://www.nytimes.com/...
Prayers for these two journalists and for all who are held with them.
Updated: h/t begone:
Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of State, said she was "incredibly concerned" about the fate of the two women, and that the charges against them "are absolutely without merit or foundation".
She said she had sent a letter to Pyongyang demanding their release. "I have taken every action that we thought would produce the result we are looking for," she said, adding that she wanted them to be "sent home".
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/...
Second Update: A Free Euna Lee & Laura Ling petition has been put up by their friends and families. The petition says they were reporting on: "the trafficking of women along the border with China."
You can sign the petition here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/...