Pyongyang arrests two US journalists who filmed along the North Korean border
Seoul (AsiaNews/Agencies) – North Korean border guards have arrested two female US journalists. An anonymous South Korean source reports that on March 17th last, the two reporters were stopped and interrogated because they had been surprised filming the border between China and North Korea.
According to South Korean TV channel YNT guards repeatedly invited the two journalists to stop filming. Following their ignored appeals, the Pyongyang army intervened, crossing into Chinese territory – along the Tumen River – and arrested them.
South Korean newspaper Munhwa Ilbo instead speaks of one arrest, of a reporter nicknamed Ming, on March 17th last along the river Yalu, also on the border between China and North Korea.
South Korean state agency Yonhap News reports ongoing talks between Pyongyang and Washington to obtain the release of the two American journalists. The arrest, according to the quoted sources, took place because the women had “accidentally” wandered into North Korean territory.
An American government delegation could shortly arrive in Pyongyang to discuss their possible release; diplomatic efforts are being carried out under a ‘low profile’, to guarantee the security of the two women.
Last week the North Korean government blocked the border with the South in response to the annual joint military exercises between Seoul and Washington. Pyongyang also cut the only line of communication – at a military level – with the South and announced the imminent launch of a telecommunications satellite: both the United States and South Korea fear that the satellite is instead a missile capable of carrying nuclear war-heads and reaching the US western seaboard. North Korean Kim Yong-il is in Beijing this week on official visit, seeking economic deals and commercial aid for a nation whose people are languishing in hunger.
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12/02/2016 15:14
18/05/2016 09:26
