Two American journalists sentenced by North Korea last week to 12 years of hard labor were caught shooting video for what the North said was a politically motivated "smear campaign," state-run media said Tuesday.
The reporting team from Current TV crossed the frozen Tumen River dividing North Korea and China three months ago and walked up the river bank — all the while recording their transgression, the official Korean Central News Agency said.
"We've just entered a North Korean courtyard without permission," the Korean translation of their narration on the videotape said, according to KCNA. One of them picked up and pocketed a stone as a memento of the illegal move, the report said.
That the underlying charge is true makes the farce of justice no less true, of course. But the incident of taunting the wild animal highlights the concept of "useful idiots."
North Korea is taking advantage of their foolishness.
