US seeks amnesty for reporters in North Korea

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Friday that she's asking North Korea to grant amnesty to the two jailed American reporters - Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

'What we hope for now is that these two young women would be granted amnesty through the North Korean system and be returned home to their families as soon as possible,' Mrs Clinton said at a State Department meeting, reported AFP. Mrs Clinton's calling for amnesty came after the call made from Laura Ling to her sister Lisa Ling, who later said an interview with KOVR television that the two reporters need "diplomacy." A North Korea court sentenced the two women to a 12-year of "reform through labor" in June for an illegal border crossing and unspecified crime. Previously Mrs Clinton said the charge was "baseless." Ms Ling, 32 and Ms Lee, 36, both working for San Francisco-based Current TV, a company co-founded by former vice-president Al Gore, were caught in March as they crossed Tumen River, the border of North Korea and China when they were working on a story regarding desperate refugees fleeing North Korea. The relationship between North Korea and the US is at its worst time as the North quit the Six-Party Talks and said it would insist the tests of nuclear missiles. On July 4, the North fired seven ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, its largest military excises in the past three years.