Two American journalists sentenced last week to long prison terms in North Korean labor camps admitted during their trial that they crossed into North Korea illegally, and confessed to committing their crimes out of political motives, the NorthÂ’s official news agency reported on Tuesday.
| How badly were they treated before they 'confessed'? |
The report by the state-run Korea Central News Agency represented the North Korean governmentÂ’s most detailed account to date of the shadowy circumstances surrounding the arrest, trial and conviction of Laura Ling, 36, and Euna Lee, 32, both journalists for San Francisco-based Current TV.
North Korea sentenced the journalists to 12 years of hard labor on charges of illegal entry and committing hostile acts, dismissing calls for clemency from the womenÂ’s families, the United States and other governments.
It was unclear why the news agency released the information on Tuesday. According to TuesdayÂ’s report, the journalists were detained on the North Korean side of the Tumen River, which serves as part of the boundary between China and North Korea. The Tumen has been used for years by North Korean refugees defecting across the border. Unlike the swift and deep Yalu River, which runs along most of the border between the countries, the Tumen is shallow and narrow, and is easily crossed in spots on foot or by swimming.
The KCNA report said that the women’s own confiscated video indicated that they crossed the river illegally. It also said that the women had admitted to fabricating some aspects of their video in order to “defile” the government’s human rights record. “During their trial, they admitted that what they did was a criminal act inspired by political motives of isolating and stifling our republic by defiling our human rights situation through fabricated video footage,” the news agency said.
The two women were given courtroom interpreters during their trial at the Central Court, the North’s highest court. Ms. Ling was defended by a lawyer, but Ms. Lee gave up her right to hire a lawyer. The ruling cannot be appealed, the news agency said. “The criminals admitted and accepted the judgment,” the report said.
Human rights advocates in South Korea who had helped arrange their trip to China have said that the journalists were on a reporting assignment about the plight of North Korean women sold through human traffickers and refugees fleeing hunger in North Korea when they were detained on March 17. The journalistsÂ’ families said they had no intention of crossing the border to the North Korean side.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has called the charges against them “baseless.” Washington has said it will employ “all possible channels to secure their release.”
American officials have said that the heavy sentences would likely be used as a negotiating ploy by the North as it tries to fend off a new United Nations resolution that imposes a mandatory ban on arms sales and calls on members to inspect cargo vessels and airplanes suspected of carrying military equipment in or out of the country. |