North Korea sentences US citizen to 8 years of hard labor - Summary

Seoul - A US citizen accused of crossing into North Korea from China has been convicted and sentenced to eight years of hard labor, North Korean state media reported Wednesday.

Aijalon Mahli Gomes, arrested on January 25 and charged with "hostility" to North Korea and illegal entry, was tried Tuesday, South Korea's Yonhap news agency said.

Gomes, a former English teacher in South Korea, "admitted to all the charges," Pyongyang's official Korean Central News Agency said.

"His guilt was confirmed according to the relevant articles of the criminal code of the DPRK (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) at the trial," KCNA said. "On this basis, the court sentenced him to eight years of hard labor and a fine of 70 million won."

The fine amounts to about 700,000 dollars, according to the official exchange rate of the North's Foreign Trade Bank, Yonhap said.

Analysts said that Pyongyang was likely to use Gomes' release as a bargaining chip in future negotiations.

The trial was attended by Swedish embassy officials in Pyongyang, according to the report. The US has no diplomatic relations with North Korea.

In February, Pyongyang released a US missionary who illegally entered North Korea to protest human rights abuses. Former US president Bill Clinton met the North's leader Kim Jong Il in August to secure the release of two US journalists.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/317444,north-korea-sentences-us-citizen-to-8-years-of-hard.html.