SEOUL/WASHINGTON: North Korea sentenced an American citizen to 15 years of hard labour yesterday for crimes against the state, prompting a US call for his amnesty in hopes of avoiding him becoming a bargaining chip between the two countries.
Kenneth Bae, 44, was born in South Korea but is a naturalised US citizen. His sentencing comes after two months of sabre-rattling that saw North Korea threaten the United States and South Korea with nuclear war.
Pyongyang has previously tried to use American prisoners as bargaining chips in talks with Washington. A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Washington was not currently looking for an envoy to try to secure Bae’s release as it sometimes has done.
The official said the United States has sought in recent years to break out of its pattern of lurching from one crisis to another with the North, only to resolve them with transactional deals with Pyongyang.
“We urge the DPRK (North Korea) to grant Mr. Bae amnesty and immediate release,” said State Department deputy spokesman Patrick Ventrell.
Bruce Klingner, a retired CIA North Korea analyst, dismissed the idea that Bae’s release would trigger the renewal of long-stalled diplomacy.
“Previous arrests of US citizens didn’t lead to changes in North Korean policy, resumption of bilateral dialogue or breakthroughs in US-North Korean relations,” said Klingner, a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington.
A North Korean defector said Bae will likely serve his sentence in a special facility for foreigners, not in one of the repressive state’s forced labour camps. More than 200,000 people are incarcerated in these camps, beaten and starved, sometimes to death, according to human rights groups.
Human rights activists in South Korea say Bae may have been arrested for taking pictures of starving children.
He was part of a group of five tourists who visited the northeastern North Korean city of Rajin in November and has been held since then.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said any negotiations with North Korea are “dependent upon the North Koreans demonstrating a willingness to live up to their international obligations.”
North Korea is the subject of UN Security Council resolutions calling for an end to its nuclear and missile tests, as well as punitive UN sanctions.
“But thus far, as you know, they have flouted their obligations, engaged in provocative actions and rhetoric,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Some media reports have identified Bae as the leader of the tour group. NK News, a North Korea news website, said he was the owner of a company called Nation Tours that specialised in tours of northeastern North Korea.
The reports could not be verified and North Korean state news agency KCNA did not list any specific charge other than crimes against the state, and used a Korean rendering of Bae’s name, Pae Jun-ho, when it reported the Supreme Court ruling.
Bae’s sentence was heftier than the 12 years handed down to US journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee in 2009. It took a visit to Pyongyang by former President Bill Clinton to secure their release.
According to North Korean law, the punishment for hostile acts against the state is between five and 10 years hard labour.
“I think his sentencing was hefty. North Korea seemed to consider his acts more severe,” said Jang Myung-bong, honorary professor at Kookmin University in Seoul and a North Korea law expert.
REUTERS
