American with 'ambition to experience North Korea prison' given 6 years' hard labour

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American with 'ambition to experience North Korea prison' given six years' hard labour

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 14 September, 2014, 5:34pm
UPDATED : Monday, 15 September, 2014, 9:31am

Associated Press in Pyongyang

Matthew Miller was sentenced to six years' hard labour. Photo: AP

North Korea's Supreme Court has sentenced a 24-year-old American man to six years of hard labour for entering the country illegally and trying to commit espionage.

At a trial that lasted about 90 minutes, the court said Matthew Miller, of Bakersfield, California, tore up his tourist visa at Pyongyang's airport upon arrival on April 10 and admitted to having the "wild ambition" of experiencing prison life so that he could secretly investigate North Korea's human rights situation.

Miller, who waived the right to a lawyer, was handcuffed and led away after his sentencing. The court ruled that it would not hear any appeals to its decision.

Earlier, it had been believed that Miller had sought asylum when he entered North Korea. During the trial, however, the prosecution argued that it was a ruse and that Miller also falsely claimed to have secret information about the US military in South Korea on his iPad and iPod.

Miller is one of three Americans now held in North Korea.

A trial is expected soon for Jeffrey Fowle, who entered the North as a tourist but was arrested in May for leaving a Bible at a provincial club. The third American, Korean-American missionary Kenneth Bae, is serving out a 15-year sentence for alleged "hostile acts".

A handcuffed Matthew Miller leaves after his trial at the Supreme Court. Photo: AP

All three have appealed to the US government to send a senior statesman to Pyongyang to intervene on their behalf.

During a brief interview in Pyongyang last week, Miller said he had written a letter to US President Barack Obama but had not received a reply.

Fowle, a 56-year-old equipment operator for the city of Moraine in Ohio, said his wife, a hair stylist from Russia, made a written appeal on his behalf to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He said the Russian government responded that it was watching the situation.

The US has repeatedly offered to send its envoy for North Korean human rights issues, Robert King, to Pyongyang to seek the freedom of the detainees, but without success.

Former US president Bill Clinton went in 2009 to free a couple of jailed journalists. Jimmy Carter made the trip in 2010 to secure the release of Aijalon Gomes, who had been sentenced to eight years of hard labour for illegally crossing into the country to do missionary work.

Miller's trial was held a day after North Korea published a 53,000-word rebuttal of the "distorted views" put forward in a report by a special UN human rights commission six months ago - which listed violations so severe as to amount to crimes against humanity.

The paper compiled by the North's Association for Human Rights Studies insisted that its people enjoyed "genuine human rights" and that "serious misunderstandings" had arisen because of fabricated reports originating from hostile nations.

In its report issued in February, the UN Commission on Inquiry into the North's rights record detailed a wide range of systemic abuses including murder, enslavement and torture.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse