N Korea's top court to try 2 US journalists

Seoul: Two American journalists accused of entering North Korea illegally and engaging in "hostile acts" faced the country's highest court Thursday for a trial on charges that could land them up to 10 years in a labor camp.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media venture, were arrested March 17 near the North Korean border while on a reporting trip to China.

North Korea announced in late April that the Americans were being investigated on criminal charges, and last month set a June 4 date for their trial at the Central Court in Pyongyang.

The trial comes at a time of mounting tensions on the Korean peninsula, with the communist regime launching a long-range rocket in April and conducting an underground nuclear test last week in defiance of international demands for restraint.

Even as ambassadors to the UN Security Council discussed how to punish the nation for the bold atomic test, there were indications that the North was preparing to test-fire a long-range missile from a west coast site, one capable of striking the US, officials said.

There were fears the women, jailed separately in the North Korean capital, may become pawns in political negotiations between Pyongyang and Washington. Their families pleaded for clemency and urged the governments not to let politics decide their fate.

The Korean War foes do not have diplomatic relations, and analysts called North Korea's recent belligerence a bid to grab President Barack Obama's attention and to speed up any direct negotiations.

"One explanation of North Korea's behavior is that Pyongyang is trying to catch Washington's attention. It believes the Obama administration has not made North Korea a priority," said David Straub of Stanford University's Korean studies program.