A human-rights activist says the stiff 12-year sentences given to two American journalists captured by North Korea shows the repressive communist regime is playing hardball in order to get more concessions from the U.S.
North Korea's top court has convicted Laura Ling and Euna Lee of what it is calling "a grave crime" and sentenced them to 12 years in a prison. The decision intensifies Pyongyang's confrontation with the United States, fueled by the North's latest nuclear and missile tests. (View video news report) Suzanne Scholte, chairman of the North Korea Freedom Coalition, believes the two American journalists were actually in China, trying to cover a story, when they were captured. "They were there to report on an under-reported tragedy that's going on with female North Koreans crossing over the border -- in many cases, mothers trying to feed their children -- being victimized by traffickers," she explains. "...I strongly believe from talking to the family that they were, in fact, in China," Scholte continues. "[Armed] North Korean border guards crossed into China, chased them down...and the two women were taken back to Pyongyang. The whole thing is just appalling." Scholte says she agrees with many others who believe Pyongyang is using the journalists as bargaining chips as the United Nations debates how to punish North Korea for its latest military threats. The U.S. State Department has already said it's "deeply concerned" and prepared to "engage in all possible channels" to free the women.
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