SEOUL, South Korea — An American who has been held in North Korea since October was sentenced to 10 years of hard labor Friday for spying and other offenses, Chinese and Japanese news agencies reported from Pyongyang, the North Korean capital.
The man, Kim Dong-chul, is the latest U.S. 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. His sentencing came a month and a half after North Korea sentenced a U.S. college student, Otto F. Warmbier, to 15 years of hard labor for trying to steal a political banner from his hotel in Pyongyang.
Kim's sentence was handed down by North Korea's Supreme Court, meaning it cannot be appealed. The verdict was reported by China's state-run Xinhua News Agency and the Japanese news service Kyodo, both of which have bureaus in Pyongyang. North Korea's state media did not immediately carry the news.
The U.S. State Department has not explicitly confirmed Kim's detention, saying that discussing such cases publicly does not help its efforts to free Americans in the North. But the North has released a copy of Kim's U.S. passport, and South Korean officials said Kim was a Korean-born U.S. citizen.
In March, Kim appeared at a government-arranged news conference in Pyongyang and apologized for trying to steal military secrets in collusion with South Koreans. The South Korean spy agency has denied involvement in such a plan.
Kim's predicament was not known until January, when the North Korean government allowed CNN to interview him in Pyongyang. At that time, Kim identified himself as a 62-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen from Fairfax, Virginia, and said he used to run a trading and hotel services company in Rason, a special economic zone that North Korea operates near its borders with China and Russia.
He said he was arrested in October while meeting with one of his local sources, a former North Korean soldier, to receive classified data.
Over the years, North Korea has detained several Americans on accusations of illegal entry or spying, or other so-called anti-state crimes. It has often given them lengthy prison terms before freeing them, sometimes after the arrival of high-profile visitors, like former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, from the United States.
Some of the foreign captives told reporters after their release that officials had coerced them into confessing to crimes at news conferences in Pyongyang.
Besides Kim and Warmbier, North Korea is holding a South Korean-born Canadian pastor, the Rev. Lim Hyeon-soo, who is serving a life sentence of hard labor on charges of plotting to overthrow the government.