Reporters’ trial seen as ploy by N. Korea

Two American reporters who went on trial in North Korea on Thursday provide additional leverage for the isolated nation as it challenges the world with nuclear and missile tests and prepares a successor for ailing leader Kim Jong-il, analysts say.

Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee face sentences of up to 10 years if convicted on spying charges by North Korea’s highest court.

“I see no reason why North Korea wouldn’t use the reporters to extract political concessions,” said Marcus Noland, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and specialist on the North Korean economy. “There will be a linkage between the reporters and weapons negotiations.”

Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee were arrested in March while reporting near the North Korea-China border on refugees and trafficking in women from the isolated communist state.

They were working for Current TV, a California-based media company co-founded by former Vice President Al Gore.

The harsh sanctions are a way to test the Obama administration, said Lucie Morillon, Washington bureau director of Reporters Without Borders USA.

“North Korea pushes other countries to the brink and then comes back when negotiations are opened,” Ms. Morillon said. “The two women could be kept in jail until the country decides to do another missile launch.”

The trial takes place amid a series of incidents that have driven tensions on the Korean Peninsula to the highest level in years.

Last month, North Korea tested its second nuclear bomb in three years, launched a series of missiles and proclaimed that six-nation negotiations begun in the George W. Bush administration were over. There are also indications that Mr. Kim, who suffered a stroke last year, is preparing the ground for succession by his third son, Kim Jong-un.

In yet another provocative incident, North and South Korea faced off for an hour Thursday in a border region off the peninsula’s western coast.

The South said a Northern gunboat intruded into Southern territory but retreated after the South fired warning shots. Naval clashes in the Yellow sea are frequent this time of the year when the crab fishing season gets under way.

Daniel Sneider, associate research director at the Walter H. Shorenstein Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford University, said he doubts the North will mix the reporters’ detainment and its nuclear activities.

“The nuclear issue is difficult as it is, and I don’t see North Korea extracting a concession for it from the situation with the reporters,” Mr. Sneider said.

He said, however, that if U.S.-Korea relations were going well, the journalists’ situation would be less grim.

Mr. Noland said that if the journalists are found guilty, North Korean authorities would probably demand a public apology.

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