North Korea puts two U.S. journalists on trial

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea put two U.S. journalists on trial on Thursday on charges of illegally entering the state with "hostile intent," in a case that could worsen tension with Washington after Pyongyang's nuclear test last week.

The journalists, Euna Lee and Laura Ling of the U.S. media outlet Current TV, were arrested in March near the border between China and North Korea while working on a story. The TV network was co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.

North Korea's KCNA news agency said in a one-sentence dispatch that the trial would begin at 0600 GMT (3 p.m. local time) at one of the country's highest courts.

Experts say the pair could face a sentence of 10 years or more of hard labor in the reclusive state. They add a guilty verdict is almost certain in a North Korean justice system that protects the unquestioned rule of leader Kim Jong-il.

Analysts said the two had become bargaining chips in high-stakes negotiations with the United States, which has long sought to end the North's nuclear ambitions.

"The country is being very careful in dealing with the two U.S. citizens and is aware of international attention and the implications of the case," said Park Jeong-woo, a law professor at Kookmin University and an expert in the North's legal system.

In a separate incident that increased tensions with its neighbor, a North Korean patrol boat briefly crossed a disputed maritime border with South Korea but retreated after a warning, the Yonhap news agency quoted the South's office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as saying.

North Korea also appears ready to raise tension through tests of a long-range missile that could reach U.S. territory and of mid-range missiles that can hit all of South Korea and most of Japan. The North was punished by the United Nations for an April rocket launch, seen as a disguised missile test.

Deputy U.S. Secretary of State James Steinberg said after meeting South Korean President Lee Myung-bak that Washington would not repeat a previous mistake of rewarding the North with negotiations for making provocations.

Pyongyang also needed to realize that China, the closest North Korea can claim as a major ally, had been shifting from its previous reluctance to join international censure of the North's nuclear and missile tests, Steinberg said in comments provided by Lee's office.

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