One of them is a Korean-American and the other a Chinese-American, and it is unclear in what circumstances they were taken by North Korean soldiers. Seoul and Washington believe North Korean authorities have detained the two.

Current TV is a website created by former U.S. vice president Al Gore in 2005 and has covered the world’s trouble spots and other dangerous areas.

Since 1990, there have been a few incidents where U.S. citizens were detained for a prolonged period of time after accidentally crossing over the North Korean border. In December 1994, chief warrant officer Bobby Hall, whose Army helicopter was shot down after accidentally straying into North Korea, was released by North Korean authorities after 13 days in captivity. In August 1996, Evan Hunziker, whose mother was South Korean and father American, was detained by North Korean authorities for almost three months after he swam across the Yalu River into the communist country.

In both cases, then House representative and incumbent New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson won the release of the Americans following long negotiations with North Korean officials. In July 1999, a Korean-American woman in her 50s was caught crossing over into North Korea from China. She was released about a month later after negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang.

If negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang follow as in previous cases, it would be the first official U.S.-North Korean talks since the launch of the Obama administration. From that perspective, the latest incident could be an opportunity for North Korea to abandon its hardline stance, which has been growing more radical in recent months. North Korea is preparing to launch a rocket despite warnings from the United States and the international community. It declined a visit by U.S. special envoy Stephen Bosworth and has rejected American food aid.

If North Korea keeps behaving this way, even the Obama administration, which made clear it wants to talk to the North, will have no choice but to take a harder line as well. If North Korea pushes ahead with the missile launch, it will gain nothing but UN sanctions, and the situation on the Korean Peninsula will get more unstable.

North Korea must release the two U.S. journalists immediately. If it holds them for a long time, resorting to their ridiculous tactic of accusing them of being “spies,” the only result would be an increase in negative sentiment toward the North among the American public. It is an internationally deplorable act to hold journalists captive. The right thing for Pyongyang to do would be to release them immediately and show the world a new side.