Obama says North Korea must disarm nuclear weapons
- 00:03:02
- ITN
Obama says North Korea must disarm nuclear weapons
Two US journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labour by North Korea were trying to slander the state, the reclusive country has claimed. Laura Ling and Euna Lee, both in their 30s and working for American media outlet Current TV, illegally entered the country on March 17 to commit "grave crime", according to North Korea. The country's official KCNA news agency said they crossed into the country via the Tumen River near the border with China to make a documentary slandering the North. The pair will not be able to appeal against their sentence and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has demanded their release calling the charges "baseless". KCNA said: "At the trial the accused admitted that what they did were criminal acts committed, prompted by the political motive to isolate and stifle the socialist system of the DPRK (North Korea) by faking up moving images aimed at falsifying its human rights performance and hurling slanders and calumnies at it. "We are following with a high degree of vigilance the attitude of the US which spawned the criminal act against the DPRK." Human rights groups have denounced the journalists' trial and said the North's judicial system is designed to protect the unquestioned rule of leader Kim Jong-il and not the rule of law. North Korea has been accused of massive human rights abuses, including maintaining a network of political prisons to stamp out dissent, and holding public executions to intimidate the masses. Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak forged a united front against the North, saying it must abandon its nuclear weapons programme and will not be rewarded for provoking a crisis. "There's been a pattern in the past where North Korea behaves in a belligerent fashion and if it waits long enough is then rewarded with food stuffs and fuel and concessionary loans and a whole range of benefits," Mr Obama said. "The message we're sending ... is we are going to break that pattern," he told reporters. Mr Lee underscored that point, saying the UN Security Council's vote last week to expand sanctions on North Korea showed the global community's firm resolve. "The North Koreans will come to understand that this is different, that they will not be able to repeat the past or their past tactics and strategies," he said.
ITN | June 16, 2009
