The Obama Administration is taking a hard line on North Korea over the sentencing Monday of two American journalists to 12 years in prison.
The two women, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, were found guilty of "grave crimes" for illegally entering the reclusive communist country.
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was "deeply concerned" about the length of the sentences and appealed for North Korea to immediately release the two.
"We think the imprisonment, trial and sentencing of Laura and Euna should be viewed as a humanitarian matter," Clinton said. "We hope that the North Koreans will grant clemency and deport them."
But Clinton said the United States considered its efforts to win the reporters' freedom entirely separate from the increasingly tense standoff with North Korea over its recent nuclear testing.
Ling and Lee were arrested on the China-North Korea border while covering a story on the lives of North Korean defectors in China for the American network Current TV.
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.
Richardson fears the journalists, 32-year-old Ling and 36-year-old Lee, are being used as pawns in a diplomatic duel over North Korea's renegade nuclear program.
"They are using them as bargaining chips. It's a high stakes poker game they are playing", Richardson said.
Another possible negotiator, if the U.S. government approved, is former Vice President Al Gore, who founded the TV venture that both reporters work for.
A senior Obama administration official said Richardson and Gore had been in contact with the White House and State Department about potential next steps, including possibly sending an envoy to try to negotiate the release of the two journalists.
Family and friends of the two are distraught.
"She's really scared. I mean, she's terrified, my sister is a wife with a medical condition," said Laura Ling, sister of one of two imprisoned Americans.
"They never intended to cross the border into North Korea," Ling added, "And if at any point they did we are truly sorry."
Tensions were already high before the trial began, after the North carried out a series of nuclear and missile tests beginning on May 25. The tests led the United Nations to consider punishing the country.
Monday's sentence was the maximum possible under North Korean law, but some analysts have said it's likely their release will be arranged through diplomatic negotiations.
The women were reporting on the illegal trafficking of women between North Korea and China. It's unclear whether they strayed into the North and were picked up there, or if border guards crossed into China to pick them up.
Ling is the sister of journalist Lisa Ling, a former co-host of "The View."
With files from the Associated Press
