Mick Hartley

As I wrote a month back when they were first taken, it's strange that this hasn't made more news:

Two US journalists arrested by North Korea near its border with China are to face trial, North Korea's state media has reported.

Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, who work for Current TV, were detained on 17 March.

The North said it had decided to charge the women after completing an inquiry into their "crimes" – although the precise charges remain unclear.

The North says the two women illegally crossed the border from China.

"Our related agency has decided to turn the US reporters over for trial based on findings of their crimes," KCNA reported.

Even the BBC are reporting that the two were most likely kidnapped:

The journalists are believed to have been on the Chinese side of the border when North Korean guards arrested them and took them back to North Korea, although the North disputes this.

They were working on a story about refugees fleeing the hard line communist North.

…though they don't actually use that word. That's a fairly major breach of every standard of international behaviour. But everyone's being very quiet and diplomatic about it all:

The reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, work for Current TV, a San Francisco-based media company founded by Al Gore, the former vice president. They were arrested by the North Korean military on March 17 on the border between China and North Korea. They had been in China reporting on the North Korean refugees who fled hunger at home and were living in hiding in China.

Ms. Ling, 32, is the younger sister of Lisa Ling, a television journalist who reported undercover in North Korea for National Geographic in 2006. In the piece, “Inside North Korea,” Lisa Ling posed as part of a medical team that used a hidden camera; her report exposed some of the hardships of living in North Korea and criticized the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il.

She had gained prominence as a co-host on the talk show, The View, from 1999 to 2002, and has since been a contributor for the Oprah Winfrey Show and National Geographic.

Lisa Ling has not commented on her sister’s capture. A message to Mr. Gore’s spokeswoman on Friday was not immediately returned. In addition, Current TV has removed content relating to the capture of Ms. Ling, a reporter, and Ms. Lee, an editor, on its web site.

But at least some people are concerned:

Amnesty International has said it doubted that they will receive a fair trial, given the North Korean judicial system’s lack of independence or transparency.

Where would we be without Amnesty International?