North Korean intelligence officials are questioning two female US journalists detained on the border and will likely try to persuade them to confess to spying, a South Korean daily said yesterday.
The JoongAng Ilbo, quoting a Seoul intelligence source, said the pair were transported to a top-security guest-house on the outskirts of Pyongyang a day after they were seized before dawn on March 17.
South Korea’s National Intelligence Service declined to comment and an analyst said he doubted whether the pair would be charged with spying.
The incident gives the North another diplomatic playing card at a time of high tensions over its plan to launch a communications satellite early next month, analysts said.
The US and its allies say the launch is likely a pretext for a long-range missile test.
Pyongyang has acknowledged it is holding the journalists for “illegally intruding” into its territory by crossing the border with China.
The JoongAng said the women walked across the frozen Tumen river marking the northeastern border at 3am while filming a program on people who flee the impoverished state.
It said they were immediately arrested by North Korean soldiers. Their case was reported to the Defense Security Command and to the Ninth Army Corps based in the province of North Hamkyong.
“The questioning is likely to focus on having the two journalists confess to committing espionage,” the paper quoted its source as saying.
“The North will painstakingly prepare for a tug-of-war with the US, videotaping the entire interviews with the two,” it said.
The journalists — identified as Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling (凌志美), a Taiwanese-American — work for Current TV in California.
However, Baek Seung-joo, an analyst with the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said North Korea would use the incident as a chance to improve its image with Washington.
“It’s quite unlikely that the North will stamp them with espionage charges for simply trying to get into its territory on a journalistic urge,” Baek said.
If the two were really being accommodated in a guest-house, it would bode well for them, he said.
“It is quite rare for anyone caught for illegal entry to be put in a guest-house. By treating them well and releasing them at an early date, the North will turn this case into a chance to expand contacts with the Obama administration,” Baek said.
The JoongAng also quoted a source as predicting that while North Korea may seek a taped admission of “spying,” the pair are likely to be freed as a goodwill gesture.
Another source said it was unlikely they would be harmed.
In Seoul, international press freedom group Reporters sans Frontieres urged North Korea to free the two reporters.
“We want to launch a form of appeal for their unconditional and immediate release. They were covering a very important issue, the issue of North Korean refugees at the Chinese border,” spokesman Vincent Brossel said yesterday. “There is no reason to put them in detention.”
Meanwhile, North Korea’s foreign ministry said yesterday that any UN sanctions imposed for its upcoming rocket launch would cause the breakdown of six-party nuclear disarmament talks.
Also yesterday, South Korea’s nuclear envoy arrived in Beijing for talks that he said would include possible “counter-measures” if North Korea carried out a controversial rocket launch.
“To be mainly discussed are measures before and after North Korea fires a missile,” Wi Sung-lac told Yonhap news agency before leaving South Korea for China.
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