North Korea said Thursday it plans to indict a U.S. citizen being held since November for an unspecific crime, in the latest detention of an American in the communist country.
Jun Young-su was arrested in November last year and has since been investigated by officials for committing a crime against the North after entering the country, said North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"He admitted his crime in the course of the investigation," the KCNA said, without elaborating. "The relevant organ is making arrangements to indict him according to the confirmation of the charges brought against him." The KCNA did not give any further details on the charges and timeframe of the indictment.
The confirmation came days after State Department spokesman Mark Toner urged North Korea to release the American detainee on humanitarian grounds.
The North has informed the United States of the latest situation and provided consular access to the detainee through the Swedish embassy in Pyongyang, said the KCNA. The embassy serves as a protecting power for the U.S. in the North as Washington and Pyongyang do not have diplomatic relations.
In Washington, informed sources said Wednesday the Korean-American detainee has been accused of getting involved in unauthorized religious activities in the reclusive communist state.
The businessman in his 60s, who attends a church in Orange County, California, has traveled frequently to North Korea on a business visa, the sources said.
"I understand many churches in the Korean community in the U.S. have been engaging in missionary work in North Korea," a source said. "In the process, such a mishap might have happened."
Members of some South Korean and Korean-American churches have been caught in China in recent years for their role in helping North Korean refugees defect to South Korea or engaging in religious activities in North Korea. (Yonhap)
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