North Korea said Monday it is preparing to put two detained U.S. citizens on trial after they were accused of committing “hostile acts.”
Matthew Todd Miller, 24, and Jeffrey Edward Fowle, 56, entered the country as tourists in April.
“Investigation is continuously ongoing but (we are) preparing for a trial based on some already confirmed hostile acts,” reported the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on Monday, according to The Associated Press.
{mosads}North Korea did not say when they would face trial, but said it has evidence and testimonies from the two men that prove they committed “hostile acts.” Its government did not specifically describe those acts.
Miller arrived in North Korea on April 10 and its government said he exhibited “rash behavior” at the airport when he ripped up his travel documents and shouted that he wanted to seek asylum.
Fowle, who is from Ohio, entered North Korea on April 29. South Korean and Japanese media, the AP notes, said he left a Bible in a hotel room as he was leaving the country, which North Korea would consider a provocative act.
Last year, U.S. citizen Kenneth Bae, who was arrested in late 2012 for committing a “serious crime,” was convicted and sentenced to 15 years of hard labor. It’s unclear exactly what Bae did wrong.
News of the forthcoming trial comes a day after Pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, which violated a United Nations ban on the country using those weapons.