North Korea detains American citizen for allegedly spying

Is North Korea holding an American prisoner?

Seoul deemed that last Wednesday’s nuclear test – which Pyongyang claims was of a powerful H-bomb – fell into the “abnormal” category and so the speakers were switched back on.

If confirmed, Kim Dong Chul, who CNN said was 60 and formerly of Fairfax, Virginia, would be the second Western citizen known to be held now in North Korea.

North Korean guards demanded the interview be conducted in Korean, and was later translated by CNN.

The translation was later independently corroborated by CNN.

If Donald Trump harbours perhaps a modicum of admiration for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, he came close to acknowledging it at a rally in Iowa at the weekend. Later, he said, he ran a trading and hotel services company in Rason, a special economic zone.

“They [South Korean officials] asked me to help destroy the [North Korean] system and spread propaganda against the government”, he added.

He also stated that he started his work as a spy in April 2013, until he was arrested by North Korean officials in October of past year, according to The Huffington Post.

Authorities caught him “red handed” and now he’s asking the US government for help.

And no, it is not former National Basketball Association star Dennis Rodman, who spent some quality time with the young North Korean dictator a couple of years ago.

Kim assured reporters that he is being treated well, and also gave his thoughts on last week’s purported nuclear test.

Kim left a wife and two daughters behind in China, with whom he has had no contact since his detention. CNN can not determine whether Kim made his statements under duress.

He said that the 2005 blacklisting of Banco Delta Asia, a bank based in Macau that held North Korean government funds, had restricted then-leader Kim Jong Il’s ability to pay his generals. He said that China’s approach to North Korea had failed.

The gesture by the North Korean authorities is viewed by experts as a signal of the regime’s intent to put pressure on the Canadian government to make concessions to undisclosed demands for Lim’s release.

The U.S. State Department declined to confirm to CNN whether Kim is a U.S. citizen, but a passport provided by North Korean officials lists his birth country as Korea and nationality as the United States.

“The South Korean-born Canadian was the head pastor at one of Canada’s biggest churches, the Light Korean Presbyterian Church in Mississauga, Ontario”, Newsweek stated.

He said he is fed three meals daily, but has yet to receive a Bible.