Yesterday, North Korea's state-run news agency KCNA announced that American journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been detained for two months on charges of illegal entry and "hostile acts," will stand trial on June 4: North Korea to Try U.S. Journalists.
Ling and Lee were arrest by the North Korean government on March 17 on the border between China and North Korea. They had been in China reporting on North Korean refugees for Current TV. I'm not sure what constitutes "hostile acts"... but we're talking about North Korea. It could be anything.
Under North Korea's criminal code, a person convicted of hostile acts against the state can face at last five years in labor camps. Illegal entry carries a sentence of up to three years in a labor camp. I don't even want to think about what any amount of time in a North Korean labor camp is like.
Last week, we saw the safe return of American journalist Roxana Saberi from prison in Iran. Let's hope we might be able to see the same for Laura Ling and Euna Lee as soon as possible.
*
