U.S. repeats call for N. Korea to release two American journalists

By Hwang Doo-hyong
WASHINGTON, June 3 (Yonhap) -- The United States Wednesday reiterated that North
Korea should free two American journalists held in the North for allegedly
entering the reclusive communist state illegally while on a news coverage tour.

"There is no higher priority that we have than, you know, protection of American
civilians abroad," Philip Crowley, assistant secretary of state for public
affairs, told a daily news briefing. "I think we believe first and foremost that
these journalists should be released."
North Korea has said that Euna Lee and Laura Ling of Current TV, a San
Francisco-based Internet news outlet, will be put on trial Thursday on charges of
illegal entry and "hostile acts."
The journalists face up to 10 years in prison if convicted of espionage.
"We, again, hope that North Korea will, you know, forgo this legal process and
return them to the United States," he said. "We are very much aware and focused
on the trials."
The Swedish ambassador in Pyongyang, Mats Foyer, who handles consular affairs
involving American citizens in North Korea, Monday met with the journalists for
the third time since their detention on March 17.
U.S. officials hope the trial signals their early release, just as with American
journalist Roxana Saberi, who was set free by Iran weeks ago on a suspended
prison term after getting an eight-year sentence for espionage.
North Korea is said to be aiming to use the detained journalists as a bargaining
chip for resumption of bilateral talks on its nuclear weapons and ballistic
missiles.
North Korea has conducted its second nuclear test, fired short-range missiles and
threatened to nullify the armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
Pyongyang also has threatened to boycott the six-party talks on ending its
nuclear weapons programs and reinforce its nuclear and ballistic missile arsenal
unless the Security Council apologizes for its rebuke for an April 5 rocket
launch.
"Obviously, they see the two women as possible bargaining chips," New Mexico Gov.
Bill Richardson said last week. "Now, what the North Koreans want more than
anything is they want to deal directly with us. They don't want the other
countries involved."
U.S. officials have said they will deal with North Korea bilaterally under the
framework of the six-party talks on the North's denuclearization, which involve
the two Koreas, the U.S., China, Japan and Russia.
As a U.S. congressman, Richardson visited Pyongyang in 1994 and 1996 to
successfully negotiate the release of two Americans.
A U.S. pilot was detained in North Korea in 1994 when his military chopper was
shot down after straying across the border. Another American citizen, Evan
Hunziker, was held for three months in 1996 on suspicion of spying after swimming
the Yalu River bordering North Korea and China.
hdh@yna.co.kr
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