Seoul: North Korea said on Monday that it will
put a detained American on trial for illegally entering the
country from China.
A North Korean agency decided to indict Aijalon Mahli
Gomes as "his crime has been confirmed," the North's official
Korean Central News Agency said in a brief dispatch.
The dispatch said the man was born in 1979 and a resident
of Boston. It provided no further details.
Today's announcement came as regional powers are pushing
for North Korea to rejoin international disarmament talks on
its nuclear weapons program. The North pulled out of the arms
talks last year in protest of international criticism of a
rocket launch.
North Korea said in January that it had detained an
American man in addition to Korean-American missionary Robert
Park but had not identified him until today.
In February, the North released Park after 43 days of
captivity. The missionary defiantly crossed the border into
North Korea on Christmas Day, shouting that he was bringing
God's love and carrying a letter urging leader Kim Jong Il to
step down from power.
Park's detainment came four months after two American
journalists arrested at the border were freed and their
12-year sentences for illegal entry and "hostile acts" were
commuted after former President Bill Clinton travelled to
Pyongyang and met North Korean leader Kim.
PTI
First Published: Monday, March 22, 2010, 20:21