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.
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Kim Dong-chul, who previously said he was a naturalised American citizen and was arrested in North Korea in October, admitted to committing “unpardonable espionage” under the direction of the United States and South Korean governments and apologised for his crimes, the North’s KCNA news agency said. North Korea claimed it detonates a hydrogen bomb, but defense officials tell Fox News they suspect it was a lower-grade nuclear test.
China’s Xinhua news agency reported the verdict against Kim Dong Chul handed down by the Supreme Court in Pyongyang.
About 28,000 American troops are deployed in South Korea to deter potential aggression from North Korea, a legacy of the 1950-53 Korean War, which ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.
He continued, according to Yonhap: “That document contains some material that I had received from Syrian human rights defenders regarding Syria-North Korea cooperation”. This included former president Bill Clinton making the trip to secure the release of USA journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling, who entered North Korea illegally through China.
There was no immediate response from the USA and South Korea.
The relationship between South Korea and the North has been tense after Seoul and Washington began their largest-ever annual military drills.
It took a visit in November 2014 by US spy chief James Clapper to bring home Mathew Miller, also arrested after entering the country as a tourist, and Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, who had been incarcerated since November 2012. “The judicial system is notoriously political, and foreign nationals in particular are very unlikely to receive a fair trial in the country, but few other details have been made public”, said Arnold Fang, East Asia Researcher of Amnesty International.
He was jailed for 15 years in prison with hard labour after admitting stealing propaganda material. Hyeon Soo Lim, a Canadian pastor, was sentenced to life in prison with hard labour for the alleged crime of “subversion” in December.
About 28,000 US troops have been stationed in South Korea to tackle the latest aggression from North Korea, which conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and a rocket launch in February.
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The isolated country has ran a series of missile launchings ahead of the Workers’ Party congress which starts on May 6th in breach of United Nations resolutions.
