North Korea’s reaction to U.S.
Monday, June 8th, 2009Lee, 36, is Korean-American and speaks Korean, but it is not clear how well. She lives in California with her husband and 4-year-old daughter Hannah. Ling, 32, is Chinese-American and a native of California. Her sister is National Geographic “Explorer” TV journalist Lisa Ling.
Kim Yong-hyun, a professor at Seoul’s Dongguk University, said the 12-year sentence - the maximum allowed under North Korean law - may have been a reaction to recent “hard-line” threats by the U.S., including possible sanctions and putting North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
But he predicted the journalists’ eventual release following diplomatic negotiations.
“The sentence doesn’t mean much because the issue will be resolved diplomatically in the end,” Kim said.
Just weeks after arresting the women, North Korea launched a multistage rocket over Japan in defiance of international calls for restraint. The U.S. and others called the launch a cover for a long-range missile test, and the U.N. Security Council condemned the move.
The U.N. censure enraged Pyongyang. North Korea abandoned nuclear disarmament talks, threatened to restart its atomic program and vowed to conduct nuclear and long-range missile tests if the Security Council failed to apologize.
