A North Korean court has sentenced him to ten years of tough labour
An American citizen, born in South Korea, Kim Dong-chul, 62, was taken into custody last October for acting as a spy in North Korea. In March, 2016, he supposedly pled guilty on the charge among reporters, claiming that South Korean intelligence paid him to be a spy. Following a series of similar cases, the US has often alleged that North Korean authorities use its citizens to gain advantages in their diplomatic frictions. Although Pyongyang has refused these claims, last year, a US student, Otto Frederick Warmbier was jailed for 15 years in North Korea for stealing propaganda signs and ‘crimes against the state’.
Kim Dong-chul was reportedly in possession of a USB stick containing nuclear and military data on North Korea, when arrested initially in Rason, a special economic zone. While deliberate confessions from extra-national prisoners is known to be frequent in North Korea, Kim, a resident of Virginia in the USA, had previously claimed that he was brought into contact with South Korean intelligence officers by those of their American counterparts.
During a period of heightened tension between the two estranged Koreas, as well as North Korea and the rest of the world, this comes as a shocking arrest. North Korea, a military-active nation, has in the last month launched several missile tests, soon after its fourth nuclear test in January, all of them grave violations of the UN sanctions. Moreover, it triggered an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council after Pyongyang attempted to launch to mid-range ballistic missiles, that crashed shortly after take-off. Most people expect North Korea to commence a fifth nuclear test in order to emphasize the upcoming rare party Congress on May 6, when leader Kim Jong-Un is likely to centralize state power.
Source (Story and Images): BBC
Tags: North Korea
