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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Norks sentence U.S. man to 8 years of hard labor |
| 2010-04-07 |
| SEOUL, April 7 (Yonhap) -- North Korea sentenced a detained U.S. man to eight years of hard labor and a hefty fine for illegal entry into the communist state and hostility toward it, its official media reported Wednesday. The move contrasts with Pyongyang's release in February of an American activist detained also for illegal entry, suggesting that the regime is trying to use the latest case as a negotiating card amid a nuclear standoff with Washington. Eight years? He'll never make it. The Norks will dangle him as bait for yet another concession ... The trial took place Tuesday, attended by unidentified officials of the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, the Korean Central News Agency said in a four-paragraph dispatch monitored in Seoul. North Korea last month identified the American as Aijalon Mahli Gomes, who crossed into North Korea through the border with China on Jan. 25. He was a former English teacher in South Korea with reportedly deep religious convictions. "His guilt was confirmed according to the relevant articles of the criminal code of the DPRK at the trial. On this basis, the court sentenced him to eight years of hard labor and a fine of 70 million won," the KCNA said. "The accused admitted all the facts which had been put under accusation." Under the North Korean trade bank's official exchange rate, the fine amounts to about US$700,000. "North Korea is announcing the legal process concerning Gomes has ended," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korea Studies in Seoul said. "It is likely to hold out the release of Gomes as a icebreaker when and if it negotiates with the U.S. over its possible return to nuclear talks." The announcement came days after North Korea threatened to stop preserving the remains of U.S. soldiers missing from the 1950-53 Korean War, a move likely aimed at opening direct talks with the U.S. In December, a Korean-American missionary named Robert Park entered the North to publicize human rights abuses in the country, but was released in early February. Separately, two American journalists were released in August last year, months after they accidentally entered the North while reporting on North Korean defectors along the border with China. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #13 Let me assure everyone that the US State Department considers Americans in trouble abroad the equivalent of a nasty cockroach problem that never goes away no matter how much you spray. |
| Posted by: gromky 2010-04-07 22:26 |
| #12 newc, it's been a long time since that time. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-07 16:39 |
| #11 Well, the precedent used to be that countries were afraid to let anything happen to Americans. *I guess no more. |
| Posted by: newc 2010-04-07 15:38 |
| #10 ok ed, I will correct myself. He was crossing into NK, screw him |
| Posted by: chris 2010-04-07 14:15 |
| #9 first 2 names sound muslim . screw him Nope. Aijalon Mahli Gomes. African Christian, possibly immigrant. Aijalon: Aijalon (also spelled Ayalon) is a place in ancient Israel first mentioned in the Book of Joshua Mahli: Mahali (also Mahli) was a son of Merari of the house of Levi according to Exodus 6:19, born in Egypt. Gomes = Gomez |
| Posted by: ed 2010-04-07 11:50 |
| #8 Maybe he wants to be like the Apostle Paul who considered his Roman prison guards to be a captive audience. He had them right where he wanted them. |
| Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 2010-04-07 11:35 |
| #7 Well, he ain't a chick, which means Bubba won't be showing up... |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-04-07 11:16 |
| #6 first 2 names sound muslim . screw him |
| Posted by: chris 2010-04-07 11:14 |
| #5 They would be well advised to keep him in solitary. He has years of exposure to freedom and news that could infect the entire prison camp like a disease. That is a quick way to have a full fledged slave revolt. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-04-07 10:00 |
| #4 He still is a US citizen which warrants concern. He defied a travel warning. He can't go singlehandedly throwing a monkey wrench into the situation, so I say let him suffer the consequences. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-04-07 09:57 |
| #3 He still is a US citizen which warrants concern. |
| Posted by: newc 2010-04-07 09:53 |
| #2 There's a lot of that kind of thing around, JohnQC. Quite a few of them have rung my doorbell over the years... and one is a favourite niece that my husband has decided to cut off for her insistent refusal to accept that she needs to respect the religious choices of others. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2010-04-07 08:47 |
| #1 Is this guy a complete idiot? What did he think he was going to do, convert North Korea to his beliefs. I'd say 8 years in NK is a death sentence unless of course he is used as bait. |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2010-04-07 08:34 |