An American detained in North Korea has confessed to conducting espionage against the North Korean government on Friday.
Kim Dong Chul, who was born in South Korea and became a naturalized U.S. citizen, admitted to collaborating with "South Korean conservative elements" for which was arrested in October 2015.
Mr. Kim said he lived in Fairfax, VA, according to an interview with CNN in January, and moved to Yanji, a city near the Chinese-North Korean border in 2011. From Yanji, he commuted to Rason, an economic zone in North Korea, where he was the president of a international trade and hotel services company.
He described his acts as "shameful and ineffaceable" and appealed to the North Korean government for forgiveness, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
"The extraordinary crime I committed was defaming and insulting the republic's highest dignity and its system and spreading false propaganda aimed at breaking down its solidarity," Kim was quoted as saying according to KCNA reports.
North Korean authorities have held news conferences in the past during which prisoners read statements that confess their wrongdoing. Past prisoners have said that they were coerced and pressured into reading their public statements.
