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North Korea pardons detained US journalists

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il on Tuesday pardoned US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee during a visit from former US president Bill Clinton, according to a state media report. The journalists were arrested in March for allegedly crossing into North Korea while reporting on North Korean defectors for Current TV and were subsequently charged with unspecified "hostile acts." They were sentenced in June in North Korea's Pyongyang Central Court to 12 years in labor camps. The journalists are expected to fly back to the US with Clinton soon, and there are hopes that this will pave the way for renewed disarmament talks between the two countries. The journalists' parson comes at a sensitive time for US-North Korean relations, with some suggesting the journalists were being used as pawns in policy disputes. Recently, North Korea conducted a second nuclear test in defiance of a 2006 UN Security Council ban on nuclear or missile tests. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and other world leaders condemned the test. In April, North Korea also violated the resolution when it fired a rocket in an attempt to put a satellite into space and test its missile technology, after ordering UN nuclear inspectors out of the country.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 04, 2009 (boomark / email).