North Korea says US citizen given six years' hard labour wanted to expose prison life
An American recently sentenced to six years of hard labour by a North Korean court pretended to have secret US information and deliberately got himself arrested to become famous and meet imprisoned US missionary Kenneth Bae, Pyongyang's state media said.
An American recently sentenced to six years of hard labour by a North Korean court pretended to have secret US information and deliberately got himself arrested to become famous and meet imprisoned US missionary Kenneth Bae, Pyongyang's state media said yesterday.
Matthew Miller, 25, of Bakersfield, California, had prepared his story in advance and written in a notebook that he was seeking refuge after failing to collect information about the US government, state media said.
"He perpetrated the above-said acts in the hope of becoming a 'world famous guy' and the 'second Snowden' through intentional hooliganism," Pyongyang's Korean Central News Agency said, referring to American whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
"This is an intolerable insult and mockery of the DPRK and he therefore deserved punishment," KCNA said.
Miller was arrested when he tore up the tourist visa he used to enter the country in April, state media said at the time. He was sentenced to six years' hard labour by a North Korean court last Sunday.
"The results of the investigation made it clear that he did so not because of a simple lack of understanding and psychopathology, but deliberately perpetrated such criminal acts for the purpose of directly going to prison," state media said.