ROK-born American sentenced to 10 years

The Supreme Court of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on Friday sentenced a Republic of Korea-born US citizen to 10 years of hard labor for alleged subversion and espionage activities.

Kim Dong-chul, who was born in 1953 in Seoul and emigrated to the United States in 1972, was charged with plotting to subvert the DPRK system, slandering the supreme leadership of the country and gathering state and military secrets.

Running a trade company in Rason, a special economic zone in the DPRK, Kim started espionage in 2013 after coming into contact with several people from the ROK who tasked him with collecting top party, state and military secrets of the DPRK, including its nuclear facilities, nuclear tests and photographs of warships at repairing factories, according to the prosecutor.