Guv: Negotiating release of journalists a ‘poker game’

This article has been updated.

The battle surrounding the detention and sentencing of two American journalists in North Korea is “a high-stakes poker game,” Gov. Bill Richardson said today during a national television interview.

He also said this might be the time to try to secure the release of the journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who were sentenced earlier today to 12 years in labor camps for illegal entry into the country, “hostile acts” and spying.

“This is a high-stakes poker game,” Richardson said on NBC’s “Today” show, according to The Associated Press. “… In previous instances where I was involved in negotiating, you could not get this started until the legal process had ended.”

CNN reported earlier today that Obama administration officials have floated to the North Korean government the idea of sending either Richardson or former Vice President Al Gore to that nation to negotiate the release of the journalists. Ling and Lee work for California-based Current TV, which Gore co-founded.

According to the New Mexico Independent, Richardson told the “Today” show that “the administration has reached out to me for advice. I’ve talked to the families.” However, he said, “Talk of an envoy is premature because what first has to happen is a framework for negotiations on a potential humanitarian release. What we would try to seek would be some kind of political pardon, some kind of respite from the legal proceedings. But now the North Koreans, they have to be part of that too. And they have to accept that kind of discussion.”

Richardson has a long record as a diplomat from his time as a congressman, U.N. ambassador and even governor, and few, if any, Americans have a better relationship with the North Korean government than him.

Richardson has traveled to North Korea several times throughout his political career, most recently in 2007 when he went there to secure the release of remains of American soldiers killed during the Korean War. North Korean officials have also traveled to Santa Fe to discuss North Korean/American relations with Richardson.

Update, 2:55 p.m.

Here’s Richardson’s TV interview: