N. Korea: U.S. Reporters Admit Wrongdoing

North Korea's state-run news agency says that two American journalists sentenced last week to 12 years of labor admitted they crossed into the country illegally.

The Korean Central News Agency said in a detailed report Tuesday that Laura Ling and Euna Lee of Current TV were arrested after crossing the Tumen River from China into North Korea.

The report says the women "admitted and accepted" the sentences handed down by North Korea's top court on June 8.

President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak will be eager to show the North the unity of their alliance and a determination not to back down.

North Korea's pledge to expand its nuclear programs gives their meeting Tuesday at the White House a sense of urgency. The presidents probably will express their refusal to accept the North as a nuclear weapons state and condemn recent missile and nuclear tests.

Before leaving Seoul, Lee said he supported Mr. Obama's appeal for a world without nuclear weapons. However, he told The Wall Street Journal, "we are faced with North Korea trying to become a nuclear power, and this really is a question we must deal with now."

The United States, during Lee's visit, is likely to pledge its continued commitment to use its military muscle to protect the South should the North attack. Such comments are welcome in Seoul and Tokyo, no matter how many times U.S. officials repeat them.

Lee's talks with Mr. Obama come on the second day of a three-day visit also scheduled to include meetings with U.S. trade envoy Ron Kirk, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomed Lee to Washington on Monday, the same day tens of thousands rallied in Pyongyang to condemn sanctions imposed by the United Nations after the country's latest nuclear test.