http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/03/22 ... latestnews

North Korea to Put U.S. Citizen on Trial


North Korea will put a U.S. citizen on trial for entering the country illegally, state media said Monday, giving few details on the case.


North Korea will put a U.S. citizen on trial for entering the country illegally, state media said Monday, giving few details on the case.

The Korean Central News Agency identified the man as Aijalon Mahli Gomes, 30, from Boston, Mass. It said Gomes would be indicted for trial "as his crime has been confirmed."

The one-paragraph report gave no further details and did not specify the charges against Gomes. North Korea previously announced it detained an unidentified American for illegal entry on Jan. 25.

The State Department said last week the North allowed a Swedish diplomat to see the detainee, the first time it granted consular access, but did not name him. The Swedish embassy represents U.S. interests in Pyongyang, North Korea's capital.

The decision to indict Gomes comes as Pyongyang presses Washington to agree to hold talks about a permanent peace pact, replacing the armistice which ended the 1950-53 Korean War.
The North wants the commitment to discuss a peace pact, and a lifting of United Nations sanctions, before it returns to six-nation nuclear disarmament talks.

The latest case is separate from that of U.S. missionary Robert Park, who walked into North Korea on Christmas Day carrying a letter calling on leader Kim Jong-Il to free political prisoners, shut prison camps, improve human rights and step down.

North Korea freed Park and its official news agency quoted the missionary as saying that the nation ensured religious freedom.

Park said little since returning to the U.S. on Feb. 6. His associates twice scheduled and then cancelled press conferences.

In March last year the communist state detained two female U.S. television reporters for illegal entry.

It sentenced them to 12 years' hard labor, but pardoned them when former U.S. president Bill Clinton flew to Pyongyang last August.