Things aren’t looking good for Laura Ling and Euna Lee.

The American journalists were detained in North Korea earlier this month for "hostile acts" against the rogue state. Those acts consisted of taking footage of the nation’s border with China for a documentary set to air on Al Gore’s Current TV cable channel.

Though the State Department has urged the North Korean government to release the women post haste, communist officials announced this week that they plan to indict and try both Ling and Lee.

Via The New York Times:

The North’s state-run Korean Central News Agency accused the two of ‘illegal entry’ and said, ‘Their suspected hostile acts have been confirmed by evidence and their statements, according to the results of intermediary investigation conducted by a competent organ.’

‘The organ is carrying on its investigation and, at the same time, making a preparation for indicting them at a trial on the basis of the already confirmed suspicions,’ it said.

This was the first reported case in which a U.S. citizen will be indicted and tried in North Korea, South Korean officials said. The North’s criminal code calls for between five and ten years of ‘education through labor’ for people convicted of ‘hostile acts’ against the state.

American officials have not been granted access to the women, but a Swedish intermediary saw them on Tuesday and North Korea insists they will abide by international law. The news comes as the States and North Korea trade barbs over the North’s planned rocket launch this week. Pyongyang officials insist they’re simply launching a satellite, but its enemies, including Japan, suspect they’re testing a missile launcher.