N. Korea set to try U.S. journalists

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) -- North Korea is set to try two detained U.S. journalists
on charges of illegal entry and hostile acts this week, amid speculation
Pyongyang may try to bargain their release for political concessions from
Washington.
The trial, set for Thursday, has been read by some experts here as a sign that
Pyongyang wants direct negotiations with the Barack Obama administration.
North Korea has significantly raised the stakes in its coercive diplomacy
recently by setting off a second nuclear device and test-firing several
short-range missiles.
Seoul officials say the upcoming ruling by the North's Central Court will be
final for the journalists -- Korean-American Euna Lee and Chinese-American Laura
Ling from San Francisco-based Current TV -- as the court in Pyongyang does not
allow appeals.
North Korean criminal law stipulates a maximum of 10 years in a labor camp for
the charges leveled against the reporters. Analysts generally believe they will
be released if or when negotiations with the U.S. make progress.
"The North will first give them long sentences and then try to negotiate," said
Koh Yu-hwan, a North Korean studies professor at Dongguk University in Seoul. "It
will try to link the journalists to other issues of mutual concern and reopen
bilateral dialogue."
North Korea has kept the U.S. government informed in detail about the journalists
who were detained near its the border with China on March 17. Pyongyang confirmed
their arrest on March 31 and said an investigation was underway into suspicions
that they illegally entered the country and committed unspecified hostile acts.
On April 24, the North said the investigation had been completed and that the
journalists would be put on trial. It announced the trial date on May 14.
In a telling contrast, North Korea has given no word about a detained South
Korean worker and has rejected dialogue proposals by the Seoul government.
Reports have said the journalists were detained while filming North Korean
territory along the Tumen River dividing the North and China. They had been
working on a documentary about North Korean defectors, a sore subject for
Pyongyang.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton initially welcomed the setting of the
trial date as a possible sign of their release.
Another senior U.S. official said he saw a chance to resume talks with Pyongyang,
following signs that a power transfer is taking place in North Korea. The North's
leader Kim Jong-il is believed to have named his third and youngest son, Jong-un,
as his heir, clearing uncertainty about his regime sparked when he reportedly
suffered a stroke last summer.
"My guess is that the North Koreans are likely to come back to the bargaining
table, especially now that it appears that the succession has been secured," the
official said on Tuesday, asking not to be named.
With the power transfer issue settled, the official said, North Korea might now
halt provocations and resume negotiations with the United States on its nuclear
and missile programs.
Cheong Seong-chang of the non-governmental Sejong Institute said the responses of
the outside world to North Korea's recent actions have led its military to expand
its influence.
South Korea and the U.S. drew up their North Korea collapse scenario, called
OPLAN 5029, amid rumors of Kim's failing health. The U.S. initiated U.N.
sanctions against the North's April rocket launch, with which Pyongyang actually
sought to solidify its internal unity, he said.
"The purpose of the rocket launch was more internal than external," Cheong said,
"And it had pre-notified the U.S. of the launch. But the U.S. took the case to
the U.N., which ended up boosting the military's position to conduct the second
nuclear test."
Despite signs that Pyongyang may want dialogue with the U.S., North Korea has
turned a deaf ear to its neighbor regarding the detained South Korean worker.
The Hyundai Asan Corp. employee, identified only by his surname Yu, was detained
at a joint industrial park in the North's border town of Kaesong on March 30 on
charges of slandering the North's political system. North Korea has not allowed
direct access to him or said how it will handle his case.
Seoul's Unification Ministry spokeswoman Lee Jong-joo said on Wednesday that her
ministry could not locate Yu's whereabouts, amid speculation he may have been
transferred elsewhere to face tougher interrogation.
"It's true that the process of checking his safety has recently become
difficult," Lee said, "But we don't know yet if that means he was moved to
another place."
Koh of Dongguk University said North Korea's handling of the South Korean and the
U.S. journalists reveal its attitudes toward tho two countries.
"That is how North Korea now perceives them," he said. "It wants to gain the
upper hand and start dialogue with the Obama administration, but toward the
South, the North has no will to talk."
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)