....to 12 years hard labour in a prison camp....

will be interesting to see how this plays out.....

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2009/06/0 ... icted.html

The United States condemned North Korea on Monday for convicting and sentencing two U.S. journalists to 12 years in a labour prison for unspecified "grave crimes" and entering the country illegally.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said President Barack Obama is "deeply concerned" about the conviction of American TV reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee. Burton said U.S. officials "were engaged through all possible channels" to secure their release.

The Central Court tried the women from June 4 to 8 and "sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labour," the Korean Central News Agency said Monday.

The report gave no other details.

The circumstances surrounding the trial of the two journalists and their arrest three months ago on the China-North Korean border have been shrouded in secrecy, as is typical of the reclusive nation.

It comes amid a tense standoff between North Korea and the West following Pyongyang's latest nuclear weapon test and a recent series of missile launches that have sparked the ire of the international community.

The sentence follows U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's warning on Sunday the United States was considering putting North Korea on its list of states that sponsor terrorism.

"The timing probably could not have been worse for these two journalists," the CBC's Michel Cormier reported from Beijing on Monday.

Judging by past incidents, North Korean officials may be trying to angle the U.S. into dropping demands for sanctions against Pyongyang in the UN Security Council, Cormier said.
'High-stakes poker game'

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the UN who has negotiated with North Korea in the past, said Monday he had been contacted by the Obama administration for his thoughts on the case.

"This is a high-stakes poker game," he said in an interview Monday morning with NBC's Today show.

"In previous instances where I was involved in negotiating, you could not get this started until the legal process had ended."

The journalists — working for former vice-president Al Gore's California-based Current TV — were arrested March 17 as they were reporting about the trafficking of women. It's unclear if they strayed into the North or were grabbed by aggressive border guards who crossed into China.

Gore spokeswoman Kalee Kreider did not have an immediate response to the sentencing.

The women cannot appeal as they were tried in North Korea's highest court where decisions are final.

The sentences are much harsher than what many observers had hoped for. The trial was not open to the public or to foreign observers.

This could get interesting. Is there any sort of international law requiring legal representation (or at least counsel) from your own country when you're tried in another?