Beijing  - North Korea on Saturday confirmed that it arrested two US journalists this week as they were illegally crossing the border with China, and said it was "investigating the case."

The US journalists were detained on Tuesday as they were "illegally intruding into the territory of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) by crossing the DPRK-China border", the Chinese government's Xinhua news agency quoted a report by the Korean Central News Agency in Pyongyang.

The Chinese agency's report and a similar one by South Korea's Yonhap news agency said North Korea gave no further details of the case.

Two women from Current TV, a US-based internet outlet, were reportedly taken by North Korean soldiers along the Tumen River on the Chinese border while filming the North Korean side.

US State Department spokesman Robert Wood on Friday said there was "a lot of diplomacy going on" over the arrest of the two women.

"There have been a number of contacts made," Wood said in Washington, adding that he did not want to elaborate during sensitive negotiations to secure the women's release.

The New York Times identified the detained journalists as Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, and Euna Lee, a Korean-American. A Korean-Chinese guide was detained with them on Tuesday morning, it said. (dpa)