A Korean-American man now being detained in North Korea held a news conference in Pyongyang Friday to acknowledge his wrongdoings and asked for mercy.
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Kim Dong Chul, who has 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 USA and South Korean governments and deeply apologised for his crimes, the North’s KCNA news agency said.
During the news conference that took place in the presence of North Korean officials, he apologized for trying to steal the North’s military secrets in collusion with South Koreans.
North Korea successfully tested a solid-fuel engine that boosted the power of its ballistic rockets, state media reported on Thursday, as South Korea’s president ordered the military to be ready to respond to the North’s “reckless provocation”.
With the rest of the world united in its opposition to Pyongyang’s nuclear ambitions, Park said the opportunity was now there “to bring about change in the North Korean regime” which would otherwise “self-destruct”.
From Yanji, Kim said he commuted daily to Rason, a special economic zone on the North Korean side of the border, where he served as president of a company involved in worldwide trade and hotel services. Those detainees have said after their releases that they were coached or coerced on what to say.
On March 16, North Korea’s highest court sentenced Otto Warmbier, a 21-year-old University of Virginia undergraduate, to prison after he confessed he tried to steal a propaganda banner as a trophy for an acquaintance who wanted to hang it in her church.
North Korea, which has been criticized for its human rights record, has in the past used detained Americans to extract high-profile visits from the United States, with which it has no formal diplomatic relations.
Observers said the harsh sentence reflected soaring military tensions on the divided Korean peninsula following the North’s nuclear test in January and long-range rocket launch a month later. In recent days, North Korea’s state media has conducted weapons launches and issued warlike rhetoric to attack Seoul and Washington in response to ongoing annual military drills between the allies that it sees as an invasion rehearsal.
Outside information is strictly controlled in North Korea and ordinary people there often use USB sticks or other portable memory drives to share foreign media.
US commanders have said they assume for war planning purposes that North Korea has a functional warhead but have stopped short of outright declaring it exists.
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South Korea is now working to establish the “Kill Chain” missile defence system by the early 2020s, which can detect, identify and strike ballistic missiles within less than 30 minutes.
