North Korea sentences U.S. citizen to 10 years of hard labor

Barbed wire near the DMZ. — (Image credit: Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

On Friday, North Korea's Supreme Court found U.S. citizen Kim Dong Chul guilty of espionage and subversion, and sentenced the 62-year-old businessman to 10 years with hard labor. Kim is the second American sentenced to hard labor recently, after 21-year-old tourist Otto Warmer was given 15 years for allegedly stealing a propaganda poster. The brief trial was conducted a week before North Korea's ruling party holds its first congress in 36 years.

Kim was arrested in October. Last month, he confessed before North Korean media to having collaborated with South Korean intelligence to bring down North Korea's leadership — which National Intelligence Service says is untrue — and trying to spread religion in the country. Previous North Korean prisoners have said their confessions were coerced.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.