SEOUL - TWO US women journalists accused of illegally entering North Korea face further hearings after they appeared in court last week, a news report said Sunday.

North Korea has been silent on the fate of Laura Ling and Euna Lee since putting them on trial Thursday for 'hostile acts' and illegally entering the country, with state media carrying no update on proceedings.

'I don't think North Korea is holding back the trial results, but is actually continuing the trial,' said an unnamed source described by South Korea's Yonhap news agency as being 'familiar' with the case.

Officials at Seoul's National Intelligence Service were not immediately available for comment. The North's state media on Thursday made a terse announcement that the women's hearing had started but have since made no follow-up reports.

The TV reporters were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 while researching a story about refugees fleeing the North, and face five years in jail and hard labour if convicted. Analysts have said the pair may become pawns in efforts to open direct negotiations with the United States.

The North has long sought direct talks in preference to the stalled six-party negotiations on nuclear disarmament of which Washington is a part.

Pyongyang has in the past freed captured Americans but only after personal interventions. The US State Department did not rule out the possibility that former vice-president Al Gore might undertake such a mission.

Mr Gore is chairman of the California station Current TV, which employs the two journalists, both aged in their 30s.

The case has further raised tensions with Washington following the North's May 25 second nuclear test and its reported plans for another long-range rocket launch following its April 5 launch.

Both detainees are married and Lee has a four-year-old daughter. -- AFP