North Korea charging American with plotting to topple government
North Korea said Saturday that it is holding a trial for an
American citizen who is charged with plotting to overthrow the government.
Kenneth Bae, a Korean-American tourist, is being tried in North
Korea’s Supreme Court and could face the death penalty, the Associated Press reported.
The case could complicate further already tenuous relations
between the United Sates and North Korea, after Pyongyang has threatened to
strike the U.S. with a nuclear weapon.
Bae has been held by police since November, when he arrived in
the northeastern city of Rajin with a group of five tourists, according to Reuters.
{mosads}”In the process of investigation he admitted that he
committed crimes aimed to topple the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea]
with hostility toward it,” Pyongyang’s state-run media reported.
South Korean rights workers said that he may have been
carrying photographs of homeless North Korean children, and a South Korean
newspaper said he may have had footage of defectors being executed, Reuters
reported.
In 2009, North Korea held two American television reporters,
which led to former President Bill Clinton traveling to Pyongyang in order to help
secure their release.
Tensions between North Korea and the Untied States have
ratcheted up in recent weeks after Pyongyang conducted another nuclear test,
leading to new sanctions.
North Korea has threatened to attack both South Korea and
the United States, and the U.S. military has flown B-2 bombers over South Korea
and moved several destroyers in response.
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