Diplomacy under way to free American journalists held in N. Korea: State Dept By Hwang Doo-hyong

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Yonhap) -- Diplomacy is under way to free two American journalists detained in North Korea for alleged illegal entry, the State Department said Friday, amid reports that North Korea is seeking to use the case to establish bilateral contact.

"They are still there," State Department spokesman Robert Wood said. "We're
working through a number of different diplomatic channels to try to see what we
can do to get these folks released."
Some analysts say North Korea aims to contact the U.S. bilaterally rather than
through the six-party talks amid escalating tensions on the Korean Peninsula as a
result of North Korea's rocket launch last week. Talks on the journalists'
release could conceivably broaden to include nuclear and missile issues.
North Korea said it will eschew the six-party talks on ending its nuclear
programs in response to a U.N. Security Council rebuke for the launch, which
Pyongyang says was a legitimate part of its space program.
The multilateral negotiations have been on and off since their inception in 2003,
but some analysts say the door remains open to bilateral engagement with the new
Barack Obama administration.
Stephen Bosworth, U.S. special representative for North Korea, has yet to make
contact with the North, but has been working to restart the talks, Wood said.
Bosworth "has been having discussions with a number of different U.S. government
entities about this," said the spokesman. "He's talked to the secretary about the
issue."
Wood said Thursday that Bosworth recently talked to the other parties to the
six-party talks, excluding North Korea, on the detention and the rocket launch,
without ruling out the possibility of the U.S. point man on North Korea flying to
Pyongyang in the near future.
"I'm not going to rule out the fact that he may, at some point, travel," he said
at that time. "But I don't have anything right now in terms of a travel
schedule."
Bosworth traveled to South Korea, China and Japan last month to discuss
resumption of the six-party talks and other issues related to the North, but his
itinerary did not include North Korea, which refused to accept him.
Wood said that the Swedish ambassador in Pyongyang visited the two journalists on
March 30 and is seeking another visit for consular protection.
The Swedish embassy in the North handles consular affairs involving American
citizens in North Korea as Washington does not have diplomat relations with the
reclusive communist state.
The reporters, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, from Current TV, a San Francisco-based
Internet outlet, were taken by North Korean soldiers on March 17 along the Tumen
River on the Chinese border while filming the North Korean side.
North Korea has said that it will try the two journalists for illegal entry and
hostile acts, without elaborating.
Reports said that the American journalists are being questioned for alleged
espionage, a charge that carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison under the
North Korean criminal code, unlike illegal entry, which is punishable by a few
years' imprisonment.
The detention is the third since 1994, when North Korea detained a U.S. pilot
whose military chopper was shot down after straying into North Korea.
Two years later, another American citizen, Evan Hunziker, were held for three
months on suspicion of spying after swimming in the Yalu River bordering North
Korea and China. Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico, then a U.S. congressman,
flew to Pyongyang to successfully negotiate their release.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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