Internet 'can help free' US reporters in NKorea

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged women students to use the Internet to campaign for the release of two American women journalists held in North Korea.

Clinton urged graduates of Barnard College, a women's university in New York City, to show their opposition to Pyongyang's detention of the two journalists who are due to go on trial on June 4.

"We have two young women journalists right now imprisoned in North Korea and you can get busy on the Internet and let the North Koreans know that we find that absolutely unacceptable," Clinton told the graduation ceremony.

Clinton was highlighting the new media tools that women can use to fight injustice around the world.

North Korea announced last Thursday that it had set a June 4 trial date for the two journalists -- Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American -- but gave no details of the charges against them.

Clinton said last week that "the fact they are now going to have some process ... is a signal that there can be and I hope will be a resolution as soon as possible," even though she said the pair should be released immediately and the charges against them are "baseless."

The North has previously said they would go on trial for "hostile acts" and illegally entering the country. Their trial would be held "on the basis of the confirmed crimes committed by them," it has announced.

While working on a story about refugees fleeing the hardline communist North, the pair were detained March 17 along the narrow Tumen River which marks the border with China.