U.S.-based broadcaster Radio Free Asia reports the U.S. Congress has postponed its voting on the resolution calling on Pyongyang to release two U.S. journalists detained by the North for almost four months.

The report said the U.S. State Department requested Congress postpone the voting because Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has asked Pyongyang for the women’s release and University of Georgia Professor Park Han-sik recently visited the communist state to discuss the issue on behalf of the department.

RFA speculated that the State Department believes there is no need to provoke Pyongyang with a Congressional resolution while Washington is negotiating under the table for the journalists’ release.