North Korea has decided to put two US journalists, arrested on its border with China more than a month ago, on trial.
Laura Ling and Euna Lee, journalists working for former US Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV, were held after they allegedly crossed the border from China on March 17 while reporting on North Korean refugees.
North Korean media did not immediately detail charges, but the North said last month that the women reporters would be put on trial on charges of illegal entry and unspecified "hostile acts."
Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said that the North concluded an investigation and formally decided to indict them "based on criminal data confirmed." It did not elaborate.
If convicted of espionage, the women could face at least five years in prison under North Korean law.
Their prolonged detention comes amid tensions on the Korean peninsula after the North fired a rocket on April 5, and then kicked out all international monitors from its nuclear facilities, vowed to restart them and quit disarmament talks.
Separately, the North has also been holding a South Korean worker at a joint industrial complex for weeks for allegedly denouncing Pyongyang's political system.
Many analysts have said the North is likely to try to use the US and South Korean citizens as bargaining chips for future talks with Washington and Seoul.
