Nuke talks hang on journalists' freedom

SEOUL, May 17 (UPI) -- North Korea must release two journalists before a U.S. envoy visits Pyongyang to revive stalled talks on nuclear disarmament, a diplomat said Sunday.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee are charged with illegally entering North Korea through China in March. The two journalists work for former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's San Francisco-based Current TV.

U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth is concerned North Korea will use the journalists as a bargaining chip if he tries to restart nuclear talks before they are freed, an unidentified South Korean diplomat told South Korea's Yonhap news agency.

North Korea has refused to restart the six-party talks because of what it called the "unfair" condemnation by the U.N. Security Council of its rocket rocket launch in April. North Korea has expelled international observers and threatened to conduct another nuclear test. The U.N. Security Council sanctioned North Korea in 2006 for a nuclear test.