After a brief trial in the Supreme Court in Pyongyang he was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison with hard labor.
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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.
However, forced confessions of foreign prisoners – as well as the broadcasting of the confessions – are routine in North Korea.
The man, Kim Dong-chul, is the latest USA citizen to receive a harsh sentence in North Korea, which has often used the fates of Americans held there as leverage in dealing with Washington.
USA citizen Kim Dong-chul, seen here arriving at court Friday, was sentenced to hard labor for what North Korea says were acts of espionage.
He was arrested on October 2, 2015 when he was receiving an SD card that contained photos of local markets in Rason and documents about North Korea’s nuclear programmes from a local resident in Rason whom he had bought off, said the prosecutor.
North Korea has detained several U.S. citizens in recent years on trumped-up charges and later released them after using them as leverage in behind-closed-doors negotiations with Washington and Seoul.
Pyongyang has tightened security ahead of the first ruling party congress in 36 years which will begin on May 6.
On Thursday morning, a projectile fired from a North Korean northeastern coastal town crashed a few seconds after liftoff, a South Korean Defense Ministry official said, requesting anonymity because of office rules.
Six foreigners, including Kim and three South Koreans, are known to be detained in the North.
The official said that in cases where USA citizens were detained in North Korea, the United States worked with the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, which looks after US consular affairs in North Korea, to ensure their welfare.
Warmbier was sentenced to 15 years hard labour this month for trying to steal a propaganda banner.
There is speculation in South Korea that North Korea will soon conduct a fifth nuclear test.
Before this month’s suspected launches, North Korea had never flight-tested a Musudan missile, though one was displayed during a military parade in 2010 in Pyongyang.
As of end-March, the number of North Koreans who defected to the South came in at more than 29,000, with some 1,280 people arriving in the South previous year.
On Saturday the USA condemned a test of a submarine ballistic missile by the North amid indications the country is planning to carry out its fifth nuclear test.
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Korean War veteran Merrill Newman, held in October 2013 on charges of “hostile acts”, was released in December the same year.
