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North Korea

Central Court 

Central News Agency

Holly Gibson

Seung-eun Lee

Laura Ling

hostile intent

 

North Korea's Central Court has sentenced two American journalists to 12 years of reform through labor. The country's official Central News Agency reported the trial confirmed the crime the two female journalists committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing. Holly Gibson, former co-worker of the two journalists, expressed surprise at the results of the sentence. "My reaction is surprised that it's such a long sentence. I'm actually not surprised there were sentenced. My feeling was that they will be sentenced to kind of send a message to, probably other journalists, and the 12 years is difficult to hear, but I'm hoping that it's more symbolic than anything else and that maybe they'll be released within a matter of months." Seung-eun Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese American, were detained on March 17th and later accused of illegally intruding into North Korean territory with "hostile intent".