North Korea on Friday sentenced a detained Korean-American, Kim Dong-chul, to 10 years hard labor on charges of subversion and espionage, China’s official Xinhua news agency said.
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The US State Department said it was aware of the reported incident but had no further details, citing privacy concerns.
Kim, a 62-year-old who was born in South Korea, is the latest foreigner to be sentenced to hard labor.
Over the years, North Korea has detained several Americans on accusations of illegal entry or spying, or other so-called anti-state crimes.
Kim was arrested in October and reportedly confessed to spying for the South Korean intelligence service.
Kim’s comments to CNN in January were made in the presence of North Korean officials and CNN can not determine whether they were made under duress.
The statement came after Pyongyang launched a Musudan intermediate-range ballistic missile on Thursday.
Matthew Todd Miller was sentenced to six years’ hard labour in September 2014 for what North Korean state media described as “hostile acts”, but was released in November the same year.
South Korean and U.S. activists on Friday launched anti-Pyongyang leaflets over the border where tensions have been running high since the isolated state’s last nuclear test in January.
North Korea faces the prospect of further worldwide isolation after the United Nations Security Council imposed new sanctions after its fourth nuclear test in January and a long-range rocket launch in February.
Kim was born in South Korea but emigrated to Fairfax, Virginia, and became a naturalized USA citizen in 1987.
A fifth nuclear test would surely invite even greater worldwide pressure following the imposition of new United Nations sanctions earlier this year – the UN Security Council already arranged a hasty meeting following Thursday’s failed missile launch attempts.
One balloon launched on Friday carried a portrait of North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and a slogan calling for his overthrow.
Separately, presidential spokesman Jeong Yeon-guk said Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn could hold a meeting of the National Security Council “at any time if needed” to deal with North Korea’s possible provocations during Park’s overseas trip next week.
Unusually intensive protests from Pyongyang followed the alliance exercises, which the communist country has habitually denounced as a dress rehearsal for a war against North Korea.
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Jeffrey Fowle, a USA tourist detained for six months at about the same time as Miller, was released just before that and sent home on a US government plane.
