Euna Lee and Laura Ling, the two Current TV reporters nabbed by North Korean border guards while they were doing a story about human trafficking on the Chinese-North Korean border, have been sentenced to 12 years hard labor in what former U.N. Ambassador Bill Richardson has called a "high-stakes poker game" that has more to do with our nuclear relations than it does with these women and their alleged crimes. A Korean-language TV station has reported that the women were convicted of "hostility toward the Korean people."

North Korea issued warnings today to fishing boats to stay clear of the country's eastern coast, raising concerns about an upcoming missile test. KCBS reports that a professor in South Korea believes the 12-year sentence is relatively meaningless, saying the issue "will be resolved diplomatically in the end." The U.S. State Department, which has no formal diplomatic ties with North Korea, has demanded their release. Fox News is reporting that Al Gore may hop over there to help negotiate their release, but take their reporting with a grain of salt.