Trial date set for US citizen held in North Korea
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NORTH Korea will put US citizen Matthew Miller on trial next Sunday, not long after he made a highly unusual televised plea for help from Washington along with two other detained Americans.
Miller, who is being held in North Korea along with Americans Kenneth Bae and Jeffrey Fowle, was arrested in April after Pyongyang said he ripped up his visa at immigration and demanded asylum.
North Korea said in June it would put Miller and Fowle on trial on unspecified charges related to “perpetrating hostile acts.”
“The Supreme Court of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea decided to hold on September 14 a court trial on American Matthew Todd Miller, now in custody according to the indictment of a relevant institution,” the official news agency KCNA said yesterday. It offered no further details.
On September 1, the three men pleaded for their freedom in an interview with CNN.
As government minders looked on, they urged Washington to send an envoy to North Korea to negotiate their release.
“My situation is very urgent,” Miller said.
“I think this interview is my final chance to push the American government into helping me,” he added, wearing a dark turtleneck and often looking away from the interviewer.
US officials vowed after the footage was aired that they would “leave no stone unturned” in their efforts to free the trio, but declined to disclose details.
US State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki would not discuss whether Washington was prepared to send a high-level envoy as it has in the past, when former President Bill Clinton and ex-Governor Bill Richardson successfully won the release of detained Americans.
After yesterday’s announcement, the State Department said there was no update on Psaki’s earlier remarks.
The trial date for Miller has been set as North Korea launches a diplomatic offensive by sending senior diplomats on rare trips to Europe — and, possibly, to the US.
Kang Sok-Ju, secretary of the central committee of the ruling Workers’ Party, arrived on Saturday for a European tour including Germany and Italy.
Foreign Minister Ri Su-Yong reportedly plans to visit New York to attend the UN General Assembly later this month.
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