No further word on American journalists captured by North Korea

The silence is deafening concerning two American reporters from San Francisco-based Current TV network, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who have been held captive for over a month by North Korea.

The journalists, Ling and Lee, face upwards of 10 years in labor camps ---hard labor. They were arrested by the North Korean authorities on March 17, after traveling through northern China to the North Korean border to do a story on trafficking of North Korean women and the overall North Korean refugee situation.

The two reporters may not have even been inside North Korea at the time of their arrest. It appears that North Korean border guards may have crossed the Tumen (the river that forms the border) while Ling and Lee were filming on the Chinese bank, according to Reporters without Borders.

North Korea is one of the hardest countries in the world for the foreign media to cover. Entire regions of the country are completely closed to the international media. It is also very difficult for the foreign press to operate freely in the Chinese provinces adjoining the North Korean border.