Relatives of two US journalists sentenced to 12 years hard labour in North Korea called on the reclusive state to show compassion, while US president Barack Obama's spokesman said the two were innocent and should be freed.
Yesterday's harsh sentence by one of the communist North's top courts deepened a chill with Washington and comes as global powers look to punish Pyongyang for a nuclear test in May that put it closer to having a working atomic bomb.
Analysts say Pyongyang is using the journalists as bargaining chips to gain the upper hand with Washington, which for years has tried to use sweeteners in return for Pyongyang reducing the security threat it poses to the North Asia region, responsible for one-sixth of the world's economy.
"We believe that the three months they have already spent under arrest with little communication with their families is long enough," the families for Laura Ling and Euna Lee, of US media outlet Current TV, said in a statement obtained today.
The two, both in their 30s, were arrested in March near the border China-North Korea border working on a story for the company, co-founded by former US Vice President Al Gore.
The North convicted them of "grave crimes," saying they illegally entered the country but details of their arrest, including where they were taken into custody, are still sketchy.
"We ask the government of North Korea to show compassion and grant Laura and Euna clemency and allow them to return home to their families," they said.
Relatives have appeared on US television shows to appeal for support and rallies have been held in major US cities. Groups including Amnesty International have criticised the North for its handling of the case.
The Stalinist North maintains a network of prisons where inmates are overworked and underfed and brutality is the norm, human rights groups and defectors have said.
In Washington, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the journalists' fate should not be linked to the dispute over Pyongyang's nuclear programme.
"If they (North Korea's leaders) wanted them for any other purposes, they would have made a big deal of it in domestic media," said BR Myers, an expert on the North's state ideology at Dongseo University in South Korea.
"The fact that they have not gives me hope that a resolution can be reached." MORE WARNINGS Markets have largely shrugged of the North's actions, and analysts say it would take a military clash at sea or on the border to have a major impact on global markets.
North Korea appears ready to further ratchet up tensions by preparing for tests of a long-range missile that could reach US territory and mid-range missiles capable of striking anywhere in South Korea and in most of Japan, officials have said.
The North has issued a no-sail warning through the end of this month for a wide area off its east coast, indicating possible missile tests. It launched a short-range missile in the area in May and a barrage of short-range missiles in 2006.
Analysts said the military grandstanding may be primarily aimed at the internal audience to help leader Kim Jong-il, who is believed to have suffered a stroke last year, arrange for eventual succession in Asia's only communist dynasty for his youngest son, Swiss-educated Jong-un.
Adding to the mystery of a change of leadership in one of the world's most secretive states, Kim's sister Kim Kyong-hui made a rare public appearance when the North's state media reported this week that she went to the opera with her brother.
The last time state media said she appeared in public was about six years ago, the South's Unification Ministry said.
The UN Security Council may adopt a new resolution as early as this week to clamp down on the country's arms trade and finances, but members are divided on how to respond.
China, the North's biggest benefactor, is seen wary of moves that might push its fragile neighbour into collapse fearing this could destabilise the region and cause a flood of refugees from the North.
Reuters