MOSCOW, May 2 (RIA Novosti) - The Supreme Court of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) sentenced a U.S. citizen to 15 years of compulsory prison labor after finding him guilty of “hostile acts” against the country’s government, the state news agency KCNA reported.
According to the agency, Pae Jun-Ho, known in the United States as Kenneth Bae, was arrested as he was “committing hostile acts against the DPRK” when he entered North Korea as a tourist in the northeastern port city of Rason in early November last year.
On Saturday, when announcing the beginning of the trial, KCNA reported that Bae “admitted that he committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK.”
On Monday, US State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said the United States called on the North Korean authorities “to release Kenneth Bae immediately on humanitarian grounds.”
