US Citizen Sentenced to Jail by North Korea

Pae Jun-Ho, a US Citizen known in the country as Kenneth Bae, has been handed down a sentence of 15 years with hard labour by North Korea for allegedly carrying out “hostile acts” against the government, according to the official Korea Central News Agency on Thursday.

Only last week, the North Korean media said that Mr Pae had confessed to committing crimes against North Korea, aimed to overthrow the government. But, Pyongyang did not specify the basis of the crimes allegedly commited by Bae, who is believed to be a tour operator of Korean descent.

“The Supreme Court sentenced him to 15 years of compulsory labour for his crime,” KCNA said on Thursday.

He was arrested in November last year as he entered the northeastern port city of Rason, a special economic zone near North Korea’s border with China.

Earlier this week, the United States had urged North Korea to free the detainee on “humanitarian grounds.”

On Monday, deputy acting State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said, “The welfare of US citizens is a critical and top priority for this department. We call on the DPRK to release Kenneth Bae immediately on humanitarian grounds.”

The sentence comes at a time when there is high tension between North Korea and the United States after the UN expanded sanctions against the communist state in March, in the wake of its nuclear test in February and long-range rocket launch in December.

Do-Hee-Yoon, a Seoul-based activist, told AFP new agency that he suspects Bae was arrested because he took photographs of suffering children in the country in order to appeal for aid outside.

It has been indicated by observers that Pyongyang could use the convicted American as a “political bargaining” chip , as US officials have stood their grounds on the fact that Bae entered the country legally.

This is not the first time North Korea would arrest a US citizen, as they have arrested several others in recent years, including journalists and Christians accused of proselytism.

Their releases were strongly initiated by the intervention from high-profile American figures.

In 2009, former president Bill Clinton went on a mercy mission to North Korea, and won the release of US television journalists Laura Long and Euna Lee, who were jailed after wandering across the North-Korea border with China.

Then, in 2010, American national Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who was sentenced to eight years of hard labour for illegally crossing into the North from China, was freed after former US president Jimmy Carter negotiated his release.

The release of Eddie Yong-Su, a California based business man, who had been detained for apparent missionary activities, was secured by a US Delegation led by Robert King, the US special envoy for human rights and humanitarian issues in 2011.