2 US journalists 'in guest house'

SEOUL: The DPRK has delayed sending two convicted US journalists to a prison labor camp, in a possible attempt to seek talks with Washington on their release, a scholar who visited the DPRK said in an interview published on Friday.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who work for former US vice-president Al Gore's California-based Current TV media group, are being kept at guest house in the DPRK capital and have not yet been sent to a prison camp as called for in their sentences, University of Georgia political scientist Han Park said.

"I heard from North Korean (DPRK) officials that the American journalists were doing fine at a guest house in Pyongyang," Park told the ROK's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper. Park, originally from the ROK, arrived on Thursday in Seoul following a trip to Pyongyang.