NK Military Detains 2 US Journalists
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Two female journalists from the U.S. have been detained by the North Korean military near its border with China, a top government official said Thursday.
They were detained while videotaping scenes along the Tumen River despite repeated warnings from North Korean border guards, he said, asking not to be identified.
``It's known that two U.S. reporters have been in the custody of the North Korean army since about two days ago after working near the North Korea-China border,'' a diplomatic source confirmed Thursday.
One of them is identified only as Ming, a Korean-American journalist. Other details have yet to be confirmed.
Both North Korea and the United States remained silent over the detention, leaving observers to speculate that the two sides might be negotiating behind the scenes.
A senior government official said on condition of anonymity that Seoul recognized the detention but is not in a position to do anything about the issue because it involved U.S. citizens.
Foreign ministry spokesman Moon Tae-young said, ``Seoul has nothing to say about the reports and has found it unnecessary to confirm the situation.''
Another Seoul official said he believes the detention is an isolated case that would neither improve nor worsen relations between Pyongyang and Washington. He said behind-the-scenes negotiations are underway for their release.
This is not the first time North Korea has detained a U.S. national.
In 1996, the North arrested and imprisoned American citizen Evan Carl Hunziker on charges of spying for South Korea.
``He admitted that he was a U.S. citizen and he illegally entered to gather information,'' the North's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. ``It has been proven by investigation that he was sent on an espionage mission by South Korea's National Security Planning Agency (the predecessor of the National Intelligence Service),'' it said.
The foreign ministry here, however, said later that the man who sneaked into the isolated state was a missionary based in China.
Hunziker was known as having South Korean ancestry on his maternal side.
He was freed three months after being held captive when then New Mexico Rep. Bill Richardson traveled to the North for negotiations and his family paid the North Korean government $5,000.
The former captive was found dead less than a month after his release, apparently a victim of suicide, according to CNN.
The communist state has sporadically stopped American flights or detained vessels but has never held journalists captive before.