N. Korea says detained U.S. journalists admitted to smear campaign

(ATTN: UPDATES with details from Korean-language report, South Korean held in N. Korea)
By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, June 16 (Yonhap) -- North Korea claimed Tuesday that two jailed U.S.
journalists admitted to plotting a "smear campaign" against the communist state
and linked their detention to its deteriorating relations with Washington.

Pyongyang is closely watching "the attitude of the U.S.," the official Korean
Central News Agency (KCNA) said, just hours before South Korean President Lee
Myung-bak and U.S. President Barack Obama were to meet in Washington. The leaders
were expected to focus on coordinating sanctions against the North over its May
25 nuclear test.
"At the trial, the accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts,
prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of
the DPRK (North Korea)," the report said.
Chinese-American Laura Ling, 32, and Korean-American Euna Lee, 36, both reporters
for the San Francisco-based Current TV, were detained near the border with China
in March while working on a story about North Korean defectors.
North Korea's highest court sentenced them on June 8 to 12 years of hard labor
for illegal entry and hostile acts.
Laying out a detailed account for the first time, Tuesday's report connected the
journalists' case to the sharpening diplomatic confrontation between the U.S. and
North Korea.
The Americans consulted with senior producers of their television station in
January for the "anti-DPRK smear campaign over its human rights issue" and
received U$$9,950 for the project, the KCNA report said. In their Chinese visa
application forms, they reported themselves as computer specialists entering
China for travel, it said.
The journalists first traveled to South Korea to shoot footage of the
demilitarized zone and interview North Korean defectors who settled in the South
before flying to China, the report said.
With help from a guard introduced by Chun Ki-won, a South Korean pastor who helps
defectors, the reporters collected "vicious stories" about North Korea at the
Chinese border region and covertly crossed the Tumen River into the North at dawn
on March 17, the report claimed. They were arrested on the spot, it said.
The North said it was issuing the detailed report to "make it known to the world
that the American crimes were committed at a time when an unprecedented
confrontational phase is building up on the Korean Peninsula against the United
States."
It said, "We are following with a high degree of vigilance the attitude of the
U.S. which spawned the criminal act against the DPRK."
The report said the trial was not open to the public for fear that the country's
classified information might be leaked. Ling was represented by a lawyer, while
Lee gave up her right to an attorney, it said.
Their prison term is counted from March 22, when the two were formally detained
for an investigation, and the ruling cannot be appealed, the report said.
Seoul analysts believe the North timed its latest report on the U.S. detainees
with the South Korea-U.S. summit set to start at the White House at 11:30 p.m.
(Seoul time).
North Korea is reminding President Obama that he has an issue to solve with
Pyongyang and to press him to tone down any criticism and start direct talks,
said Kim Yong-hyun, a North Korea studies professor at Dongguk University in
Seoul.
The allies strongly condemned the North's May 25 nuclear test, and the U.N.
Security Council, with support from Seoul and Tokyo, hardened financial and
diplomatic sanctions against the North last week.
In response, Pyongyang vowed to weaponize all plutonium it has and start
enriching uranium, which is widely viewed as a second track to building nuclear
weapons.
"North Korea is telling the U.S., 'Do not insist on harsh sanctions at the
summit. These people committed these serious crimes, so shouldn't you step up for
their release?' It is saying the U.S. should take political action to resolve
the political case," Kim said.
A South Korean worker is also being held in North Korea on charges of criticizing
its political system and trying to incite the defection by a local female
employee. North Korea has not yet given word about the fate of the Hyundai Asan
Corp. employee, who was detained at a joint park in the North's border town of
Kaesong on March 30.
hkim@yna.co.kr
(END)