SEOUL, South Korea (CBS News) ―North Korea's state news agency says the country has concluded an investigation of two detained American journalists and formally decided to indict them.
Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said in a short dispatch Friday that the North decided to indict the women reporters "based on criminal data confirmed."
Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for former Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV, were arrested after they allegedly crossed the border from China on March 17 while reporting on North Korean refugees.
The North said last month it would indict them on charges of unspecified "hostile acts."
If convicted of espionage, the women could face at least five years in prison under North Korean law.
Investigators were poring through the journalists' notebooks, videotapes and camera for signs they were spying on the North's military facilities, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper said last month, citing an unnamed South Korean intelligence official.
The two were being held at private quarters run by North Korean military intelligence agency on the outskirts of the capital, the report said.
South Korea's main spy agency, the National Intelligence Service, said South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities were keeping a close watch on the case but that it could not immediately confirm the report.
The U.S. State Departement has also been in contact with the communist state about the journalists' detention.
An activist who claims he helped the two plan their reporting trip has said they were reporting on North Korean refugees in China. The Rev. Chun Ki-won told The Associated Press that he warned them against getting too close to the border with North Korea.
JoongAng said they crossed into far northeastern North Korea by walking over the Tumen River dividing the country from China early in the morning of March 17. The narrow river, frozen this time of year, is a frequent escape route for refugees fleeing North Korea.
The two journalists were stopped by a North Korean soldier and then taken into custody when their IDs revealed they were American citizens, the report said, citing unnamed sources. The two reportedly were taken to Pyongyang on Wednesday in separate vehicles.
If convicted on espionage charges, the women face at least five years in prison under North Korean law, South Korea's Unification Ministry said.
However, JoongAng Ilbo noted that conviction on charges of illegally crossing the border and spying on the North's military facilities could draw more than 20 years for each.
http://cbs4denver.com/national/north.korea.journalists.2.993091.html
Thursday, June 4, 2009
King of Peace Torture
For all the talk of Peace Ambassadors, the Satanic America and claims of being the New Perfected Adam an article in "The Washington Times" on redefining torture clarifies the meaning of disinformation. In a June 25, 2004 piece entitled "Severe and Prolonged Harm" Eugene Kontorovich of George Mason University already set the tone for the fake republican debate on violating the Geneva Convention. Eugene clearly states the Bush Administration’s need to redefine that physical abuse is not always torture.
Blaming the UN and congressional definitions in already stating that torture must be severe pain and suffering. Suggesting that slapping someone, which is a misdemeanor and domestic abuse violation of common law is justified as not torture. Shaping the argument as military life can be considered torture. Citing the UN "Convention Against Torture" and U.S. Congress’s "Torture Victim Protection Act" as the ones who are setting the new standards of torture. After decades of the Geneva Convention in affect where the idea of lawsuits against CIA Officers or Military arose from is now answered.
Torture voids the "Torture Victims Act" developing a Kangaroo Congress. The strategy aim explicitly expressed by Reverend Sun Myung Moon of the Unification Church who and which owns The Washington Times is to bring down the Great Satan America truly transcends in this debacle of a debate.
Back in 1988 there was a flurry of news articles about a young Zimbabwean or South Koreanian proclaiming to be Rev. Moon’s dead son. With this newfound title this young man was reportedly slapping members of the Church. The Times President mysteriously fell down stairs at this same time.
Arnaud deBorchgrave of United Press International now and of Early Warning a private intelligence newsletter in the late 1980’s was quoted saying this young man was a plant by the North Korean government. 20 years later putting in context President Bush’s answer to David Gregory’s, of NBC, question in the Rose Garden Press Conference Friday September 15, 2006. David asked how Bush felt about North Korea setting their own definitions of torture to our CIA/Military personnel when Bush violates the Geneva Convention. What if N. Korea tortured and used secret evidence in a show trial against our people?
President Bush’s answer was he hoped N. Korea would use Rev. Moon and his definition under the guise of U.S. Congress, as torture definitions. Knowing Rev. Moon and Arnaud deBorchgrave’s claims of contacts in the North Koreanian military and with Kim Jung Ill II’s father leaves pause to digest. Are they abusing the American population thru a proxy such as a their sworn enemy of the United States? As a way for Rev. Moon to bring the American/Zionist/Corrupt Christian population into his cult be that by force, coercion or physiological warfare as a means?
By Ravin Black September 16, 2006
photo from September 10, 2006 Victory Celebration for Korean members of the Unification Church
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