File photo taken shows freed US journalists Euna Lee (L) and Laura Ling (R) arriving after being released from North Korea, at the airport in Burbank, California. (ROBYN BECK/AFP)

SAN FRANCISCO, September 1, 2009 (AFP) - Two US journalists jailed for illegally entering North Korea told how they were dragged back into the Stalinist state from China by soldiers, in their first account of the incident.

Television journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor by North Korea before being freed as part of a diplomatic mission spearheaded by former US President Bill Clinton last month.

In a lengthy statement posted on the website of the pair's employers, Current TV, Lee and Ling said North Korean troops chased them back into Chinese territory and abducted them after they briefly crossed the border on March 17.

"We were firmly back inside China when the soldiers apprehended us," said the women, who had been working on a story about human trafficking in the region at the time of their detention.

"We tried with all our might to cling to bushes, ground, anything that would keep us on Chinese soil, but we were no match for the determined soldiers.

"They violently dragged us back across the ice to North Korea and marched us to a nearby army base, where we were detained."

Lee and Ling said that during the 140 days of captivity that followed, they were "isolated from one another, repeatedly interrogated and eventually put on trial and sentenced."

While parts of their captivity "are still too painful to revisit," the journalists said their experiences "pale when compared to the hardship facing so many people living in North Korea or as illegal immigrants in China."

Although there were no signs marking China's frontier with North Korea, the pair said they were aware that they heading toward the border crossing as they moved on foot across the frozen Tumen River.

They followed their Korean-Chinese guide across the river, who pointed to a nearby village where illegal immigrants were believed to be waiting in safe houses.

But they then grew anxious and decided to turn back and cross the river back into China.

"Feeling nervous about where we were, we quickly turned back toward China. Midway across the ice, we heard yelling," they said.

"We looked back and saw two North Korean soldiers with rifles running toward us. Instinctively, we ran."

The guide and another producer from Current TV, Mitch Koss, were able to outrun the soldiers but Lee and Ling were captured.

"We didn't spend more than a minute on North Korean soil before turning back, but it is a minute we deeply regret," Lee and Ling said.

The two women hinted that they may have been led into an ambush by their guide, who had acted "oddly" on the morning of their capture.

"To this day, we still don't know if we were lured into a trap. In retrospect, the guide behaved oddly, changing our starting point on the river at the last moment and donning a Chinese police overcoat for the crossing, measures we assumed were security precautions," they said.

"But it was ultimately our decision to follow him, and we continue to pay for that decision today with dark memories of our captivity."

They expressed concern about how their well-publicized detention may have led to tighter security measures and more scrutiny toward activists and North Koreans living along the border.

"The activists' work," Lee and Ling said, "is inspiring, courageous and crucial."

The journalists revealed how they scrambled to destroy notes and damage videotape in a brief moment when they were left alone with their belongings in an attempt to protect their sources.

"With guards right outside the room, we furtively destroyed evidence in our possession by swallowing notes and damaging videotapes," they said.

The women denied statements made by Seoul-based priest Chun Ki-Won -- who assisted the journalists in planning their trip and has said in interviews he warned the women not to enter the area where they were captured.

"Among other things, Chun claimed that he had warned us not to go to the river," they said.

"In fact, he was well aware of our plans because he had been communicating with us throughout our time in China, and he never suggested we shouldn't go."