EIJING — North Korea sentenced an American man to six years of hard
labor Sunday for allegedly entering the country illegally and trying to
spy on the highly secretive and autocratic state. Matthew Miller, 24,
from Bakersfield, Calif., had been held since entering the country April
10 as a tourist with a New Jersey-based tour company.
State news agency KCNA previously reported that Miller had torn up his tourist visa during his trip and said he wanted asylum. At the 90-minute trial Sunday, held at the North Korean Supreme Court, the prosecution argued that this was a ruse Miller hoped would enable him to commit espionage against North Korea, the Associated Press reported from Pyongyang.
The court said Miller had admitted to having the "wild ambition" of experiencing prison life in order to carry out a secret investigation of North Korea's human rights situation, said AP. The prosecution alleged that Miller had claimed, falsely, that his iPad and iPod contained secret information about the U.S. military in South Korea.
Miller becomes the second of three U.S. citizens detained in North Korea to be tried and jailed. Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, 45, is serving a 15-year sentence of hard labor in North Korea. Another U.S. tourist, Jeffrey Fowle, 56, a street repairs worker from Miamisburg, Ohio, still awaits trial for leaving a Bible at a seamen's club in May.
Authorities made all three men available for brief, monitored interviews earlier this month. Miller told CNN he "prepared to violate the law of DPRK before coming here. And I deliberately committed my crime." Miller asked the U.S. government to secure his release, but did not comment on why he tore up his visa.
