N.Korea unlikely to quickly release U.S. journalists - analyst
14:5409/06/2009 MOSCOW, June 9 (RIA Novosti) - North Korea is unlikely to give in to pressure to release the two U.S. journalists detained for border trespass as it will not want to lose face, a U.S. analyst said.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced on Monday to 12 years of hard labor for illegally crossing the border from China in March while working on a story for San Fransisco-based Current TV.
"Hopefully I am wrong, but I wouldn't expect them to turn around and give them up, because that may look like the penalty is not that strong if someone decides to be poking around their country," James L. Schoff, Ph. D. Associate Director of Asia-Pacific Studies with the Institute for Foreign Policy Analysis, told RIA Novosti.
He said the issue will be used by Pyongyang as a bargaining chip in negotiations with the United States.
"I think, as much as it's useful in a future negotiation with the United States, the primary motivation is to send the very clear message: 'we are not weak, and we are not vulnerable and no one should be poking around our borders and if you do, you will pay a very stiff penalty'", he said.
"All of the steps that North Korea has taken in the last six or eight months or so have pointed in the direction where they are interested in keeping people out whether it's relationships with South Korea, weapons inspectors or food, aid delivers, etc."
The families of Lee and Ling issued a joint statement on Monday asking North Korea to "show compassion and grant Laura and Euna clemency, and allow them to return home to their families."
"We don't know what really happened on March 17, but if they wandered across the border without permission, we apologize on their behalf and we are certain that they have also apologized," the statement said.
CNN quoted senior U.S. administration officials as saying that either former vice president Al Gore, who founded Current TV, or New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, could be sent to Pyongyang to negotiate the journalists' release.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the arrests are being treated as a separate issue to the standoff over North Korea's May 25 nuclear test, which is likely to result in UN sanctions. However, she said the State Department is working to secure the reporters' release.
"Obviously, we are deeply concerned about the length of the sentences and the fact that this trial was conducted totally in secret with no observers. And we are engaged in all possible ways, through every possible channel, to secure their release," she told reporters.
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