The U.S. State Department is urging North Korea to immediately release two U.S. journalists who have been detained in the communist state since March.

State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told reporters Friday that Pyongyang has been asked to grant amnesty to Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who were sentenced to 12 years of hard labor last month for allegedly entering North Korea illegally and other hostile acts.

The recent request is a shift on behalf of Washington, as asking that amnesty be granted to the two journalists would be an effective admission of the reporters’ guilt. The U.S. had so far urged for the release of the two women on humanitarian grounds.

Meanwhile, members of Reporters without Borders held a rally in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Friday and called for the release of the two American reporters, saying their arrest was a denial of basic media rights.

The two reporters, of San Francisco-based Current TV, were detained by North Korea on March 17th while filming a documentary along the North's border with China.