North Korea Sentences Two Current TV reporters to 12 Years

Two reporters from the online news network Current TV have been arrested and sentenced in North Korea while reporting on a story about human trafficking. Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, the co-founder of Current TV, is expected fly to Pyongyang to work on securing their release…

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for San Francisco-based Current TV, were sentenced by the top Central Court in Pyongyang in a brief two-day trial that started Friday as U.S. officials demanded the release of the two women. The state-run Korean Central News Agency reported that the court “sentenced each of them to 12 years of reform through labor” but gave no further details. Following Monday’s verdict, U.S. officials reissued their call for North Korea to release the pair. “We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release,” State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said in the statement. Ling and Lee were arrested March 17 along the China-North Korean border after top officials in Pyongyang said they encroached on North Korea soil while reporting a story on human trafficking by Kim Jong Il’s regime. Housed separately in Pyongyang since their arrest, the women have reached out to family members in the U.S., who have in the last week made several public appeals calling for their release.

The full story from the LA Times…