WASHINGTON - US SECRETARY of State Hillary Clinton appealed on Monday for North Korea to show clemency and deport two US journalists sentenced to 12 years in a labour camp, calling it a humanitarian case.

Mrs Clinton, like others in President Barack Obama's administration, also urged North Korea to treat the women's case as separate from the international showdown over Pyongyang's nuclear weapons test last month.

Families ask N.Korea for 'compassion' WASHINGTON - THE families of two jailed US reporters appealed to North Korea on Monday to 'show compassion', saying in a joint statement they were 'devastated' by the women?s sentences to a labour camp. In their first public remarks since North Korea announced the punishment, the families of reporters Laura Ling and Euna Lee apologised on their behalf if they accidentally strayed into the hardline communist state. ... more Will US send envoy after NKorea jails reporters? SEOUL - THE sentencing of two American journalists to 12 years' hard labor in North Korea on Monday sets the stage for possible negotiations with the reclusive nation for their release - perhaps involving an envoy from the United States. New Mexico Gov Bill Richardson, who helped win the release of Americans from North Korea in the 1990s, said he was 'ready to do anything' the Obama administration asked. Another possible negotiator, if the US government approved, is former Vice President Al Gore, who founded the TV venture that both reporters work for. ... more

'We view these as entirely separate matters,' Mrs Clinton told reporters after a North Korean court sentenced journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee to 12 years in a labour camp for an illegal border crossing and an unspecified 'grave crime.' 'We think the imprisonment trial and sentencing of Laura and Euna should be viewed as a humanitarian matter. We hope that the North Koreans will grant clemency and deport them,' Mrs Clinton added.

The chief US diplomat, speaking during a meeting with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda, called for their 'immediate release on humanitarian grounds,' but did not explain why they should be freed on those grounds.

Ms Ling and Ms Lee were detained by North Korean border guards on March 17 along the frozen Tumen River, which marks the North's border with China, while researching a story on refugees fleeing the hardline communist state.

The pair, both aged in their 30s, were on reporting assignment for San Francisco-based Current TV, a company co-founded by former vice president Al Gore.

The administration may be contemplating trouble-shooting roles for Mr Gore and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as Mrs Clinton said 'we are engaged in all possible ways through every possible channel to secure their release.' The State Department last week did not rule out possible intervention by Mr Gore.

Mr Richardson, a former US ambassador to the United Nations who in the past negotiated the release of Americans in North Korea, said the administration had contacted him for advice in the case.

He also said he had spoken to the women's families.

Interviewed on NBC's Today Show, Richardson predicted the political negotiations for their release would now begin in what he called a 'high stakes poker game.' But he said that any talk of a US envoy for the case was 'premature' because a framework for negotiations on a potential humanitarian release had to first be established.

'What we would try to seek would be some kind of a political pardon, some kind of a respite from the legal proceedings,' Richardson said.

In 1996, then-US congressman Richardson negotiated the release of Evan Hunziker, who had been detained for three months on suspicion of spying after swimming the Yalu border river. -- AFP