Kenneth Bae, American Christian detained in North Korea, sentenced to 15 years in labor camp
An American christian detained for nearly six months in North Korea has been sentenced to 15 years of labor for crimes against the state, the North’s state media said Thursday.
The sentencing of Kenneth Bae, described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, comes amid signs of tentative diplomacy following weeks of rising tensions in the region.
Bae’s trial on charges of “committing hostile acts” against North Korea took place in Supreme Court on Tuesday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported.
He was arrested in early November in Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea’s far northeastern region bordering China and Russia, state media said. The exact nature of Bae’s alleged crimes has not been revealed.
Friends and colleagues say Bae, a Korean American who was living in Washington state, was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed orphans.
State media refers to Bae as Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling of his Korean name.
Bae is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released.
“North Korea is using Bae as bait to make such a visit happen. An American bigwig visiting Pyongyang would also burnish Kim Jong Un’s leadership profile,” Ahn Chan-il, head of the World Institute for North Korea Studies think tank in South Korea said.
[…] Bae, who was sentenced to 15 years’ hard labor for trying to overthrow the North Korean government, has diabetes and an enlarged heart, the BBC […]
[…] week North Korea sentenced Kenneth Bae, a Korean American who traveled to visit North Korea last November, for what is said were crimes […]
US State Dept:
“What we’re urging the DPRK authorities to do is to grant him amnesty and to allow for his immediate release, full stop.” – May 3, 2013