Kim Dong-chul, who was born in 1953 in Seoul and immigrated to the United States in 1972, was charged with plotting to subvert the DPRK system, slandering the supreme leadership of the socialist country and gathering state and military secrets for espionage.
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The prosecutor asked for 15 years sentence, but his defence attorney asked for leniency and consideration for his old age.
According to South Korea’s National Intelligence Service [NIS], at least 20 overseas restaurants operated by North Korea have either been shut down or gone out of business in the aftermath of global sanctions implemented against the country.
Some experts had predicted that North Korea would wait until it figured out what went wrong in the previous launch before attempting another, a process that could take months.
North Korea has detained Americans in the past to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.
In the past, North Korea has waited until senior USA officials or statesmen personally bailed out detainees, such as when former president Bill Clinton visited in 2009 and secured the freedom of American journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling.
A Canadian pastor, Hyeon Soo Lim, was sentenced to a life of hard labour in December for so-called crimes against the state.
Little is known about the case of Kim, 62, who was arrested on espionage charges in October. On North Korea’s “Founder’s Day” on April 15, the first test of a Musudan missile with a range of 2,500 miles failed spectacularly in an embarrassing setback for the communist regime.
“The beginning of the year is particularly strategic, typically a lot of things happen at that point: the joint military exercises between USA and ROK (South Korea), that occurs and this year in particular, Worker’s Party congress which hasn’t happened since 1980”, Jasper Kim said.
Kim “confessed to all crimes he had committed”, the Korean Central News Agency said.
North Korea has sentenced an American citizen to a decade behind bars for “spying” and “stealing state secrets”.
Defense One reported that a USA defense official said the Pentagon had no advance warning of North Korea missile launches, such as the firing of two Rodong missiles from a road mobile launcher on March 18.
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The North is also holding Warmbier, who was convicted for trying to steal a propaganda banner during an organized tour over the New Year’s holiday.
