The Supreme Court of North Korea on Friday sentenced US citizen, Kim Dong-chul, to 10 years in prison and hard labor on charges of subversion and espionage [NPR report]. Kim, 62, was a resident of Virginia before moving to China for business in 2001. He was living close to the North Korean boarder when he was detained in October. Kim was allegedly arrested while trying to receive a USB drive containing national secrets. He was interviewed [text] by CNN in January where he called upon the US and South Korea for help. He also gave a press conference [BBC report] in March, in which he appears to confess to the charges. The validity of his confession has been subject to speculation.

Kim is the second American sentenced in North Korea this year. In March a University of Virginia student, Otto Warmbier, was sentenced [JURIST report] to 15 years of imprisonment and hard labor following his conviction for subversion. Warmbier, 21, was in North Korea as part of a tour group when he was arrested before boarding a plane out of the country. He confessed in February in a press conference that he had attempted to steal a propaganda sign from a Pyongyang hotel, calling his crime “very severe and pre-planned.” He was accused of attempting to impair the unity of North Korea’s people, and was charged with subversion under Article 60 of the country’s criminal code. Warmbier was reportedly convicted this week after a trial at the North Korean Supreme Court in Pyongyang which lasted only one hour.