North Korea has sentenced a former Virginia man to 10 years in prison with hard labor for subversion, its official news agency said Friday, in the latest case involving an American being detained by Kim Jong Un’s regime.
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Kim Dong Chul, center, a USA citizen detained in North Korea, is escorted to his trial on April 29, 2016, in Pyongyang, North Korea.
North Korean state media said Kim was in Rason to receive key secrets about its nuclear programme from a source.
Kim had made an apparent confession in Pyongyang last month in front of reporters, saying he was paid by South Korean intelligence officers.
Kim “confessed to all crimes he had committed”, the Korean Central News Agency said.
South Korea’s military said the missile was sacked on Saturday in waters off North Korea’s northeast coast and flew about 30 km.
It has previously handed down lengthy hard labor sentences to foreigners, though many are released within months.
“The Supreme Court of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea on Friday sentenced South Korea-born USA citizen Kim Dong Chul to 10 years of hard labour for subversion of the DPRK social system and espionage activities”, Xinhua said. He said he was arrested in October.
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea’s test-launches of two Musudan missiles on Thursday, although appeared both failed, have added to uncertainty of the situation on the Korean Peninsula.
Kim is just the latest foreigner to be convicted for crimes against the isolated state, with U.S. student Otto Warmbier last month condemned to 15 years of hard labor over an attempt to steal a propaganda poster from a hotel.
North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong defended the jailing of Warmbier for alleged anti-state activities, but told The Associated Press that he would inform authorities in Pyongyang there is concern in the USA over the student’s fate.
South Korea, and others nervously watching the North’s defiance of United Nations resolutions aimed at curbing its nuclear and ballistic missile technologies, expect another nuclear test before the congress.
In addition, the NIS chief stated that the group of 13 North Korean employees at the Ryugyong Restaurant in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province who defected on the 7th of April were originally planning to flee with seven more workers, which would have put the total at 20.
The country also tightened its security for the upcoming party congress on May 6. Miller was serving six years on an espionage charge after North Korea accused him of wanting to secretly investigate its prison system.
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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”.
