Report: N. Korea detains 2 from U.S.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Two American journalists were missing today after they were reportedly detained by North Korea for ignoring warnings to stop shooting footage of the reclusive country.

Journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee, reporters for former Vice President Al Gore’s online media outlet Current TV, were seized Tuesday along the Chinese-North Korean border, according to news reports and an activist who had worked with them. Their Chinese guide also was detained, although a third journalist with the group, Mitch Koss, apparently eluded capture.

U.S. officials expressed concern to North Korean officials about the reported detentions and said they were working with the Chinese government to ascertain the whereabouts of the Americans.

“When you have two American citizens who are being held against their will, we want to find out all the facts and gain their release,” said State Department spokesman Robert A. Wood.

U.S. officials also were in contact with Swedish diplomats in North Korea. Sweden’s Ambassador to Pyongyang, Mats Foyer, refused to say in an e-mail whether negotiations for the Americans’ release were under way. The U.S. does not have direct relations with North Korea, a communist country, and Sweden acts as its representative.

Calls to North Korea’s mission to the United Nations in New York went unanswered Thursday.

In San Francisco, an employee of Current TV told reporters: “There will be no comment on the situation anytime today.”

Ling is a sister of Lisa Ling, a former co-host of the American TV talk show “The View” and now a contributing correspondent for Explorer. She said the family had no comment.

The arrests come at a time of heightened tension on the Korean peninsula, with North Korea declaring its intention to shoot a satellite into space next month. Fearing the launch will be a cover for the test-fire of a long-range missile, regional powers are urging the North to refrain from firing any rockets.

In Washington, the top U.S. commander in the Pacific, Adm. Timothy Keating, called the launch a threat to U.S. security.