N. Korea puts US journalists on trial

North Korea put two US journalists on trial yesterday on charges of illegally entering the state with "hostile intent", in a case that could worsen tension with Washington after Pyongyang's nuclear test last week.

The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of the US media outlet Current TV, were arrested in March near the border between China and North Korea while working on a story. The TV network was co-founded by former US Vice President Al Gore.

North Korea's KCNA news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch that the trial would begin at 0600 GMT (3 p.m. local time) at one of the country's highest courts.

Experts say the pair could face a sentence of 10 years or more of hard labour in the reclusive state. They add a guilty verdict is almost certain in a North Korean justice system that protects the unquestioned rule of leader Kim Jong-il.

Analysts said the two had become bargaining chips in high-stakes negotiations with the United States, which has long sought to end the North's nuclear ambitions.

"The country is being very careful in dealing with the two US citizens and is aware of international attention and the implications of the case," said Park Jeong-woo, a law professor at Kookmin University and an expert in the North's legal system.

Little has been heard of the two journalists since their arrest but they were seen last month by Sweden's ambassador to Pyongyang on behalf of Washington, which has no diplomatic ties with North Korea.

"When I first got here, I cried so much. Now, I cry less," Ms Ling was quoted as saying in a letter sent to her sister in May. Human rights groups have said jails in impoverished North Korea are brutal, with torture common and prisoners often killed through malnutrition and abuse.

Prior to the trial, the families of the journalists called for North Korea to quickly release Ms Lee, who has a four-year-old daughter, and Ms Ling, who was being treated for an ulcer.

"We aren't certain of the details of what happened on March 17, but we can say with absolute certainty that when the girls left US soil, they never intended to set foot onto North Korean territory," they said in a statement.