N Korea to try US journalists as launch nears

Seoul: North Korea said on Tuesday it would put on trial two US journalists arrested this month on its border with China, stoking tensions with Washington ahead of a planned rocket launch that has already alarmed the region.

The reclusive state accused the two women reporters, Laura Ling and Euna Lee from the US-based media outlet Current TV, of unspecified "hostile acts".

Pyongyang's announcement comes just days before North Korea plans to put what it says is a satellite into space but which Washington and others say will be a test of a long-range missile that could carry a warhead as far as US territory.

The reporters were arrested two weeks ago by the Tumen River, which runs along the east side of the border between North Korea and China, while working on a story.

"The illegal entry of US reporters into the DPRK (North Korea) and their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements, according to the results of intermediary investigation conducted by a competent organ of the DPRK," North Korea's KCNA news agency said.

"The organ is carrying on its investigation and, at the same time, making a preparation for indicting them at a trial on the basis of the already confirmed suspicions."

KCNA said the reporters would be allowed consular access and treated according to international laws. The United States has no diplomatic relations with the North and uses the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang to act as its mediator on such issues.

"We have seen (the report) and are still in the process of working diplomatically ... to achieve a favourable outcome," US State Department spokesman Fred Lash said, declining further comment.

The incident comes amid growing pressure on the North not to launch its Taepodong-2 rocket.

Peter Beck, a Korean affairs specialist at the American University in Washington, said the issue over the reporters could provide a means for Pyongyang and Washington to talk to each other.

Beck said he expected Stephen Bosworth, Washington's envoy for North Korea, to be dispatched in the weeks after the rocket launch to secure the release of the two women.

"After the test and some hand wringing, we (the United States) will grope our way back to table. But we really don't know if the North is serious about negotiating at this point. It looks like they aren't," he said.

North Korea says the rocket launch will be between April 4-8, just before the opening session of its newly elected Supreme People's Assembly, a rubber stamp body that should set out the authoritarian government's policies for the next five years.

The planned launch is certain to feature on the sidelines of the G20 summit this week in London when US President Barack Obama meets global leaders, including President Hu Jintao of China, the nearest the isolated North has to a major ally.