Lisa Ling

Former The View star Lisa Ling, whose sister is one of two U.S. journalists sentenced to 12-year prison terms in North Korea, said the women are sorry for entering the country, and pleaded again for their release.

Ling spoke on Anderson Cooper 360 soon after North Korea's official news agency reported that the women, sentenced to the country's notoriously brutal labor camps, had confessed to entering the country illegally. The agency said they had "extremely rude political motives to stifle and insult our nation's images."

The country hasn't made Laura Ling, 32, and Euna Lee, 36, both reporters for Current TV, available to their families or anyone else to confirm or deny that account. read more 8 Comments

U.S. journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, sister of former View co-host Lisa Ling, have been sentenced to 12 years in a labor prison by North Korea's Central Court.

The reporters, who were working for Current TV, a company co-founded by Al Gore, were convicted of a "grave crime they committed against the Korean nation and their illegal border crossing," the Korean Central News Agency said.

Claiming suspicion of "hostile acts," North Korean authorities detained Lee and Ling along the China-North Korea border on March 17. The two were on assignment reporting on the plight of North Korean refugees.

"We are deeply concerned by the reported sentencing of the two American citizen journalists by North Korean authorities, and we are engaged through all possible channels to secure their release," U.S. State Department spokesman Ian Kelley said in a statement. "We once again urge North Korea to grant ...
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