SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA — North Korea's top court convicted two American journalists and sentenced them to 12 years in a prison Monday, intensifying the reclusive nation's confrontation with the United States.
The sentencing came amid soaring tensions fueled by the North's latest nuclear and missile tests. Many believe Pyongyang is using the journalists as bargaining chips as the U.N. debates a new resolution to punish the unpredictable country for its latest military threats.
In a cryptic two-sentence report, the North's state news agency said Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36 were sentenced after the five-day trial ended Monday. They were guilty of a "grave crime" against the nation and of illegally crossing into North Korea, the Korean Central News Agency said.
The court "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor," said the report, without giving other details. The phrase refers to a prison term, according to Choi Eun-suk, a North Korean law expert at Seoul's University of North Korean Studies.
He said North Korean law calls for transferring convicts to prison within 10 days after verdict.
Ling and Lee, working for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV, cannot appeal because they were tried in North Korea's highest court, where decisions are final.
Some analysts believe negotiations will now begin that will likely lead to the journalists' release....
Source: http://www.wral.com/news/national_world/world/story/5302540/
