ANOTHER United States citizen has been imprisoned for 10 years in North Korea today on suspicion of espionage.
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North Korea sentenced a naturalised United States citizen to 10 years of hard labour on Friday for spying and subversion.
Kim is the second American this year to be sentenced to prison with hard labor by North Korea.
The US State Department said it was aware of the reported incident but had no further details, citing privacy concerns.
Prosecutors were seeking a 15-year hard labor sentence for Kim Dong Chul for committing “offenses in a scheme to overthrow the socialist sytem of the DPRK”, according to state-run news agency KCNA.
“Kim is the latest American detainee in North Korea to receive a harsh sentence”.
However, South Korean intelligence establishment told western news agencies Kim was not in its payrolls.
In the interview overseen by North Korean officials, Kim said he worked in the Rajin-Sonbong special economic zone, just over the border in North Korea, as head of a trade and hotel services company.
Kim Dong Chul, a 62-year-old man of Korean origin, will serve 10 years of hard labour after he was found guilty under Articles 60 and 64 of the country’s criminal code at his short trial in Pyongyang.
Kim’s sentencing came as North Korea also accused USA soldiers of trying to provoke its frontline troops with “disgusting” facial expressions and by encouraging South Korean soldiers to aim their guns at the North.
When former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter traveled to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of American citizens it was portrayed in North Korean media as a sign of their strength.
Experts said the North has previously used detained Americans as leverage to force the U.S.to open bilateral talks with it. He said he was arrested in October.
According to Kim, he spied on behalf of “South Korean conservative elements” on the country’s nuclear and military program.
Hyeon Soo Lim, a Canadian Christian pastor of South Korean origin, was sentenced to a life term of hard labour in December, also for “crimes against the state”.
In 2009, North Korea detained two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, for illegally crossing the border.
Jeffrey Fowle, a U.S. tourist, was in jail for six months before being sent home on a USA government plane.
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A North Korean military statement warned US soldiers to stop what it called “hooliganism” at the inter-Korean border village of Panmunjom, saying otherwise the soldiers would meet a “dog’s death any time and any place”.
