By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

PYONGYANG, North Korea – The trial of U.S. journalists detained in North Korea began Thursday.   Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters working for an Internet-based television network launched by former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, were arrested back in March while covering a story on the plight of North Korean defectors near the China-North Korean border.  Lee and Ling are accused of crossing into North Korea illegally and engaging in “hostile acts.”  If convicted, the journalists can face 10 years in a labor camp.

Euna Lee and Laura Ling (Source: Yonhap/AP)

Human rights groups have expressed suspicion as to whether the arrest was orchestrated in advance by North Korea and, to no avail, have tried to contact the journalists’ guide who is currently believed to be in a Chinese prison.  Observers have also been barred from the courtroom, and contact with the two women has been limited.

Moreover, it is impossible to know for sure what penalties the journalists will face if convicted, because little is known about the North Korean legal system.  However, North Korea is known to have a brutal gulag system.

U.S. State Department Spokesman Ian Kelly called the trial an “opaque procedure,” adding that the Department was informed that the journalists do have a defense attorney although the lawyer’s name was not given.

U.S. officials and media groups have repeatedly called for Lee and Ling’s release, and the reporters’ families have asked for clemency and leniency from the North Korean government.  In a letter to her husband, Ling wrote, “While I am trying to remain hopeful, each day becomes harder and harder to bear.  I am so lonely and scared.”

The trial comes at a time when tensions are high between North Korea and the international community due to underground nuclear testing and blasting of short range missiles by North Korea.

For more information, please see:

CNN – N. Korea bars observers at U.S. reporters’ trial – 4 June 2009

Financial Times –  N Korea puts US journalists on trial – 4 June 2009

New York Post – 2 JOURNALISTS ON TRIAL IN N. KOREA – 4 June 2009

UPI – N. Korea opens U.S. journalists’ trial – 4 June 2009