The convicted U.S. citizen, Kim Dong Chul, has Korean heritage.
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North Korea has previously handed down lengthy hard labor sentences to foreigners, though eventually freeing them before they served their full terms. South Korea has firmly denied such claims, urging the North to stop distorting the event.
KCNA reported that the prosecutor demanded 15 years of hard labor but the “defense counsel” asked the court “to commute the demanded penalty, arguing that the crimes by the accused are very serious but he is old and may repent of his faults, witnessing for himself the true picture of the prospering DPRK”.
In the past, North Korea has used the detention of US citizens to obtain high-profile visits from the likes of former US Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton in order to secure their release.
North Korea insists Mr Kim is an American citizen, but the USA state department says it can not confirm his identity.
According to the North’s state media, he had been arrested in Rason as he was receiving a USB stick containing nuclear-linked data and other military information from his source. Mr. Kim was accused of espionage and subversion, and found guilty by North Korea’s Supreme Court of those crimes under Articles 60 and 64 of the country’s criminal code. 12 hours later North Korea made another attempt, launching a third Musudan missile on 7:26 p.m.; again, the missile exploded in mid-air after launch.
The two launches were spotted yesterday by South Korean and United States missile tracking networks.
A senior research fellow at the Korea defence and security newsgroup and a policy advisor to the South Korean navy, Yang Uk, said the North Koreans seemed to be in a hurry to exhibit a success head of the party congress.
“They need to succeed but they keep failing”, he said “They didn’t have enough time to fix or technically modify the system, but just shot them because they were in a hurry”.
Tourist Jeffrey Fowle, arrested for leaving a Bible in a club several years ago, was held under what amounted to house arrest.
North Korea launched a string of short- to mid-range missile launches during the course of the two-month exercise, including the firing of two Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missiles on Thursday.
Kim confessed that he had been introduced to South Korean spies by the USA intelligence officers.
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There are growing concerns that the North may carry out a fifth nuclear test sometime over the next week, ahead of a rare ruling party congress that begins May 6.
