We shudder to think of the wrath that might have been brought down, and sometimes was, during our years-ago forays into one less-than-free country or another — but the editorial "we" cannot, for the life of us, imagine what two young American journalists thought they'd accomplish on, and perhaps across, the fringes of the free world's border with North Korea.

Surely they knew that, if they fell into the clutches of the Kim Jong-Il regime, there wouldn't be just tut-tutted reprimands. And if they somehow thought that some international committee for the protection of the press would free them from captivity, well, lots of luck.

But even by Pyongyang's nonstandards of human rights, the sentence they drew is brutal: 12 years at hard labor. This after three months of prison in the world's most repressive nation while they were being run through what passes for a judicial system.

This is a case for Bill Richardson: New Mexico's governor, at various stages of an illustrious political career, has been a special envoy to places like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Omar al-Bashir's Darfur-destroying Sudan and, twice, to none other than North Korea. He returned with captive Americans he'd helped diplomatically free.

The governor says only that he's been in contact with the Barack Obama administration over the case of the two TV reporters. Do Kim's people even want to talk to any American about the case? North Korea is eyeball to eyeball with the rest of the world, including its usual allies, Russia and China, over nuclear weapons and ever-improving missile capacity. The United Nations is on the verge of severe sanctions against that country. Are the henchmen of the reportedly ailing Kim in any mood to negotiate over a couple of people they say are spies?

Maybe — but that could be good or bad: Maybe they'd ease up on the women's sentences, in exchange, say, for the United States and the rest of the world backing off on the sanctions — which might include high-seas inspections of ships to or from North Korea; high-tension stuff, for sure.

Could — or should? — a dangerous regime be allowed to continue on its warlike way for the sake of journalists who knew, or should have known, what they were getting into?

For Richardson, once our country's ambassador to the United Nations, this could be a truly tough test of diplomacy. But who better than he to take it?

The White House might remain nervous about the governor, who had to give up his nomination as commerce secretary when he fell under a grand-jury investigation of pay-to-play politics.

He's still under that shadow — but that shouldn't stop the administration from sending him out if such a trip can be arranged.

Worst-case scenario: While en route to Pyongyang, Richardson is indicted. Why should we deal with an accused criminal, the North Koreans might wonder, while our State Department perspires.

The response would be yes, he's accused — but innocent until or unless proven guilty in a fair and open trial; the very notion that he'll go back and face his accusers and live with a jury's decision is one that makes our country credible. In the meantime, Richardson is the same person with whom you've been able to deal during two other incidents — one involving a lout who swam into North Korea, the other dealing with a pilot shot down over that country.

The case of Euna Lee and Laura Ling could take a while to reach the diplomatic speaking stage — but those two couldn't ask for a better negotiator than Bill Richardson.