North Korea Says It Will Put American on Trial
SEOUL, South Korea — North Korea said on Sunday that it would put Matthew Todd Miller, one of the three known Americans held in the country, on trial in a week.
Miller will be tried at the North’s Supreme Court next Sunday, the country’s state-run Korean Central News Agency said, indicating that his trial would be a one-day event with no appeals allowed. North Korea had earlier said that Miller shredded his tourist visa and demanded asylum upon arriving in the country in April. Accusing him of unruly behavior, the North had said it would indict him on charges of committing a “hostile act’’ against the country.
Another American, Jeffrey Edward Fowle, also faced trial for a “hostile act.’’ Last year, an American missionary named Kenneth Bae was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor on charges of hatching a plot to overthrow the government through proselytizing.
In their separate interviews with CNN and The Associated Press on Monday, the three Americans said they admitted to being guilty and beseeched Washington to send a high-level envoy to negotiate their freedom.
The United States has repeatedly offered to send its envoy for North Korean human rights issues, Robert R. King, to Pyongyang to appeal for the release of the Americans, but without success. It has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, and relies on the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang to represent the interests of its citizens held there.
North Korea had previously used charges of “hostile acts’’ to sentence Americans held there to long prison terms, as a means of securing visits from high-profile Americans, like the former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Analysts said the North wanted to extract similar visits to undermine Washington’s effort to increasingly isolate the country over its nuclear and ballistic missile activities.
Washington has advised Americans against traveling to North Korea.
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