A man claiming to be a U.S. citizen has been detained by the North Korean government on espionage charges, CNN reported January 11.
The man who has been identified as Kim Dong Chul was interviewed by a CNN reporter in a hotel in Pyongyang, the country’s capital.
Mr. Kim told the reporter than he had resided in Fairfax, Virginia before moving to Yanji -- a city in China near the North Korean border -- in 2001. He commuted daily to Rason, located in the northeastern region of North Korea, where he headed a international trade and hotel services company.
He said he began spying on “behalf of South Korean conservative elements” in April 2013 who “injected me with a hatred toward North Korea” by bribing residents to collect information on North Korea’s military and nuclear program.
He was arrested in October 2015 while meeting with a former North Korean soldier to collect a USB memory stick and a camera containing military secrets.
CNN released a picture of Kim’s US passport. The U.S. State Department declined to comment on the matter, explaining in an email to CNN that "speaking publicly about specific purported cases of detained Americans can complicate our tireless efforts to secure their freedom."
